“We are thrilled to build on the decade of success at the Basser Center and work towards what should be a transformation in how future generations face these diseases.” “The dream of intercepting these cancers at their earliest stages or preventing them in the first place is no longer science fiction,” said Mindy and Jon Gray. “We are so proud to partner with them to transform the outlook for individuals with BRCA mutations and give them better, nonsurgical, options to live healthy, long lives.” “Mindy and Jon are philanthropic visionaries who give of themselves in many creative ways that have made profound differences in the way we educate, care for, and engage with patients and families who are coping with and at risk of hereditary cancers,” said Penn President Liz Magill.

In total, the Grays have given over $250 million to philanthropic causes, including maximizing access to education, health care, and other opportunities for low-income children in New York. Their subsequent gifts have supported advances in BRCA gene mutation-related science around the world and sparked donations to the Basser Center from nearly 5,000 other supporters. The Grays’ total commitment to Penn over the last decade has now surpassed $125 million, including their transformative $25 million gift that established the Basser Center in 2012 in honor of Mindy’s sister, Faith Basser, who passed away at age 44 of BRCA-related ovarian cancer ( Almanac May 22, 2012). Mindy and Jon’s gift to create this institute holds tremendous promise for families who are living with BRCA mutations-and for the broader field of hereditary cancers-where we are so eager to empower patients with options to erase the cancers that have followed their families for generations.” “We now sit at an inflection point where we have the ability to revolutionize the timeline of cancer care. “Over the past 10 years, Basser has become the global epicenter for BRCA research, education, and testing,” said Susan Domchek, executive director of the Basser Center for BRCA and the Basser Professor in Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine. The Basser team will pioneer efforts ranging from drugs and immune-based approaches to intercept BRCA-related cancers to new methods of detecting cancer cells with biomarkers and artificial intelligence. The institute will aim to dramatically disrupt the timeline of cancer treatment, “intercepting” disease when the very first abnormal BRCA1/2 cells develop-or even stopping cancer from developing at all-rather than reducing cancer risk through surgery or treating cancer once it has grown enough to become visible through imaging and testing. On September 17, the University of Pennsylvania’s Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center announced a $55 million gift from Penn alumni Mindy and Jon Gray to establish a new Basser Cancer Interception Institute, creating a new weapon to target hereditary cancers at their earliest stages.

$55 Million Gift from Mindy and Jon Gray to Establish a New Basser Cancer Interception Institute

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