The foundation’s generous gift will speed the pipeline from discoveries to therapies at the Miller School’s Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute.

Established in 1955 by insurance entrepreneur Cornelius Vander Starr, The Starr Foundation awards grants for philanthropic projects in areas such as education, health care, human needs, public policy, and cultural arts. In the area of education, which is traditionally one of the foundation’s highest priorities, the foundation provides need-based financial aid to students by endowing C.V. Starr Scholarship Funds at more than 140 secondary schools, colleges, and universities, including the University of Miami. The foundation’s chairman of the board, Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, attended the University of Miami in the late 1940s, and his wife, Corinne, is an alumna.

The Starr Foundation has long been a champion of stem cell research, which has the potential to dramatically change the way physicians treat and cure disease. The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) at the UM Miller School of Medicine shares The Starr Foundation’s belief in the power of regenerative medicine. ISCI’s cardiac clinical trials, led by ISCI director Joshua Hare, account for the largest cohort of patients injected with stem cells in the United States. These studies are also making headlines around the world, showing that stem cells injected into hearts following a heart attack actually repair damage and improve organ function.

A $10.3 million gift from The Starr Foundation will help ISCI broaden its preclinical and clinical research on stem cells, thus speeding the translational pipeline for debilitating conditions such as cancer, wound healing, stroke, glaucoma, chronic kidney and gastrointestinal diseases, and much more.

Member of Miami Giving Society