UC San Diego Gift to Boost AIDS Research
The School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, has received an endowment to create what may be the nation’s first research chair dedicated to studying possible cures for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, university officials announced Friday.
San Diego philanthropist Florence Seeley Riford, who in 1983 endowed a chair at the university for research into Alzheimer’s disease, gave the School of Medicine the title to property in San Diego, which will be sold to fund the position. John Steinitz, UCSD’s Director of Planned Giving, said the endowment could reach $500,000.
“I think it will help substantially in the sense that it will bring recognition to the university as being the leader in the field of AIDS research,” Steinitz said. Such recognition, he added, often leads to additional federal grants.
The faculty member who will occupy the position, Steinitz said, will be selected in a nationwide search of institutions studying possible cures for AIDS, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, leaving the victim vulnerable to a variety of tumors and ailments.
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