The Burnham Institute for Medical Research has been renamed the Sanford-Burnham institute. This follows a $50 million gift from South Dakota banker Denny Sanford.
Sanford was already well known to San Diego's medical science community. He donated $30 million to the stem cell research center that's now under construction near the Salk Institute. Sanford says the Burnham Institute had a great record of scientific research and that means his gift will be well spent.
John Reed is the CEO of the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. He says the gift will help recruit new scientists and put research to work.
"Helping us do a more effective job of taking the great basic discoveries our scientists make and translating those into new prototype therapeutics and diagnostics of the future," said Reed.
Denny Sanford is a good friend of developer Malin Burnham of San Diego, for whom the research institute is also named.
