NEW YORK CITY (June 22, 2011)—The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) has received a half-million dollar gift from the Golub family to launch the NYCF-Golub Stem Cell Initiative for Parkinson's Disease. The initiative permits researchers in the NYSCF Laboratory to use a novel approach to understand Parkinson's disease that includes the creation of stem cell lines from a genetically diverse population of Parkinson's patients.
The announcement was made at the NYSCF Laboratory by the organization's CEO Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF Board Chairman Dr. Roy Geronemus, and Lawrence E. Golub, President of Golub Capital, and his wife Karen Finerman, President and CEO of Metropolitan Capital Advisors.
According to Ms. Solomon, the NYSCF – Golub Initiative provides a remarkable opportunity to advance the search for better therapies for Parkinson's disease, and supports a dedicated team of Parkinson's researchers in the NYSCF Laboratory. The research will include creating stem cell lines from a genetically diverse population of Parkinson's patients, which will be part of a large bank of lines that will greatly accelerate the creating of new drugs and therapies on actual cells that are dying of the disease. It will permit NYSCF researchers and their collaborators to screen for drugs that slow or stop the progression of Parkinson's disease.
"We are so grateful to Lawrence Golub and Karen Finerman for their generous support of a new approach that holds so much promise for this debilitating disease that creates so much suffering for patients and their families," says Ms. Solomon. "This is an incredible opportunity to advance the search for better treatments for Parkinson's disease. The current therapies are just not acceptable."
"Our goal is to accelerate treatments and translational work that pharmaceutical companies are not prepared to do," said Mr. Golub, who explains the lines will be made available to qualified private and public sector scientists for research purposes. "NYSCF has the right people and the right lab to get the job done. Our goal is to create a drug-testing factory that turns raw science into drugs for the public sector."
Mr. Golub and his family have long been involved in a very personal fight against Parkinson's disease. His mother currently has the disease and his maternal grandfather suffered from it. Ms. Finerman and Mr. Golub's brother, David, both serve on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
Mr. Golub, who grew up in a science-oriented household (his mother has a doctorate in psychology and his father was a physician), originally planned to become a physician. At Harvard, he fulfilled all of his pre-med requirements, but chose business instead, realizing his background in science and abilities as a financial problem solver would allow him to put money to work in transformative ways.