UVA Lands $100 Million From Paul and Diane Manning for New Biotech Institute

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

University of Virginia

Paul and Diane Manning gave $100 million to help establish a new biotechnology institute, which will be named the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology.

Researchers at the institute will work to discover treatments and cures for diseases using cellular therapy, gene therapy, nanotechnology, and to develop new drugs. It will also enable the university to expand its clinical-trial offerings.

Paul Manning founded and leads PBM Capital, an investment firm that focuses on health care. He also founded PBM Products, a Gordonsville, Va., company that produced baby formula and food for toddlers. He sold the business to the Perrigo Company in 2010 for $808 million.

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

South Dakota banker Denny Sanford gave the biomedical research institute $70 million to hire up to 20 new faculty members in a range of fields, including cancer, neurodegeneration, and computational biology, over the next four years.

The institute was established in 1976 as the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation but renamed in later years to honor large donations from Sanford, Roberta and Malin Burnham, and the late Conrad Prebys. Sanford gave the institute $50 million in 2010 and $20 million in 2007. Sanford gave this latest gift late last year.

Sanford is a longtime donor to medical research and has given more than $3 billion to charity since 2005. He has appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors 12 times.

New York University Stern School of Business

Ken and Elaine Langone pledged $25 million to support scholarships for students attending the business school’s Langone Part-Time MBA Program. The program was launched in 1999 with a $10 million donation from the Langones; it enables working professionals to pursue an M.B.A. through courses held on weeknights, Saturdays, or online. Much of the couple’s latest gift will be directed toward assisting military veterans and active-duty military personnel in the program.

Ken Langone is one of several co-founders of Home Depot, a home-improvement retailer, and he founded and leads Invemed Associates, a private-equity firm in New York. He earned an M.B.A. from the Stern School in 1960 and serves on its Executive Board and on NYU’s Board of Trustees.

Mount Sinai

Kenneth Edelson pledged $5 million to the Waldman Department of Dermatology to support an endowed professorship, a need-based medical-student scholarship, a fund for skin-cancer research, annual lectures, a dermatology exam room, and a patient room at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Edelson is a dermatologist and a clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai. He received his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a member of the first four-year graduating class in 1972 and has had a long association with the medical center as a physician and professor. Edelson is also an actor who has appeared in a number of feature films.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.