Gift Enables Columbia to Open Brain Study Center

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Columbia University said on Monday it plans to build a center dedicated to studying the brain and behavior using a $200 million gift that is the largest received by the institution.

The research and teaching facility, to be named The Jerome L. Greene Science Center, is made possible by the gift from Dawn Greene to honor her late husband, a Columbia alumnus and prominent New York lawyer, real estate investor and philanthropist.

The center, which will be built in Harlem, will be led by neurobiologist Dr. Thomas Jessell, and Nobel laureates Dr. Richard Axel and Dr. Eric Kandel, the university said.

The university said the center will foster research to probe the root causes of neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and motor neuron diseases, among others. Its research also could assist in decoding disorders of mood and motivation, cognition and behavior, like autism, dementia and schizophrenia.