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Duchossois Family Institute

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Duchossois Family InstituteHarnessing the Microbiome and Immunity for Human Health

The University of Chicago and TDFF take pride in a dynamic relationship — one that has, over several decades, helped shape and support scholarship, education, and patient care. A prime example is the establishment of The Duchossois Family Institute. From the earliest stages of the idea, we were partners, consulting with faculty and University leaders to understand how best to leverage strengths and create a new science of wellness.

In May 2017, the Duchossois family announced a gift to the University of Chicago Medicine of $100 million – including $50 million from The Duchossois Family Foundation and $50 million from Janet and Craig Duchossois. This transformational gift has allowed UChicago Medicine to explore how the human immune system, bacteria in the body, and genetics interact, and how those relationships can be harnessed to promote wellness and reduce disease.

The result: in October 2017, UChicago Medicine celebrated the opening of the Duchossois Family Institute.

Looking back, the connection between The Duchossois Family Foundation and UChicago Medicine spans almost 40 years, inspired by the care that matriarch Beverly Thrall Duchossois received when she was treated for cancer in the late 1970s. Throughout the decades the Foundation and UChicago Medicine have enjoyed and cultivated an ever-evolving philanthropic relationship through continued dialogue, education, research, and self-reflection.

In 2014, upon the passing of family member R. Bruce Duchossois, also to cancer, the Foundation was bequeathed a gift that generously increased its endowment, positioning the board to continue its strategic philanthropy with greater capacity. This allowed the board to take greater risk and be bold about what this next transformational gift would look like.

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The Duchossois Family Foundation & UChicago Medicine

Four Decades of Support

 

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After a multi-generational strategic planning process, the board, under new leadership, came to the conclusion that the first step was to honor the family’s tradition of giving to cancer research by reimagining what it means to address health and wellness in the 21st century. UChicago Medicine’s ability to deliver, combined with the Foundation’s trusted, historical relationship, made UChicago Medicine a natural institutional partner for the Foundation to achieve these goals.

Shifting the paradigm from treatment of disease to the promotion of health, the Foundation hopes to harness the body’s natural abilities to prevent disease by leveraging UChicago Medicine’s well-established network of scientific relationships from disparate disciplines to collaborate, discover, and disseminate solutions. By doing so, we strive to honor our family members and all loved ones who have suffered from illness, and dare to dream that this innovative approach will bring discoveries that will, literally, be life changing.

And substantive progress has been made. DFI has launched four clinical studies on the microbiome’s impact on heart transplantation, liver transplantation, intensive care hospitalization, and COVID-19 disease progression. DFI has also cultured, characterized, and maintained 1,700 bacterial strains, critical to advancing the Institute’s own research and the investigations of external partners.

Tradition Begets Transformation and Innovation

Funding from both TDFF and Janet and Craig Duchossois has also helped cement DFI’s relationship with the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, making a dedicated licensing manager within DFI a reality. Moreover, the partnership has brought to fruition a critical enterprise: a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility — the first of its kind at an academic medical center.