Imagine the day when computers can generate three-dimensional images of part of a patient’s body so physicians can plan surgery and view the results before entering the operating room. Imagine the day when genetically caused diseases can be treated by replacing a defective gene in the body.
Recent grants to the UW from IBM and the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust bring closer the day when treatments such as these are possible. They are among recent gifts that brought the Campaign for Washington, the UW’s first major fund drive, to $166.7 million as of June 30.
In May, IBM and the UW announced a three-year project to design and build a sophisticated medical imaging system through the UW’s new Center for Imaging Systems Optimization. UW faculty and IBM scientists will collaborate to develop technology and software that will give physicians instant access to X-rays and other diagnostic images via computers.
IBM will provide hardware, software, faculty grants, student fellowships and a full-time IBM coordinator to work with UW faculty as part of the project. About $2.7 million of these costs will count toward the Campaign for Washington goal, which is to raise $250 million in private support by 1992.
In other private giving, the University of Washington received a $7.5-million grant from the Lucille P. Markey Trust in April to establish a multidisciplinary medical genetics research center. The Lucille P. Markey Genetic Medicine Center will build on existing research programs at the UW School of Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Research faculty will carry out basic studies in three main areas: gene therapy, which is the replacement of an abnormal gene by a normal one; developmental genetics and the genetics of birth defects; and genetics of common disorders such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes and other ailments.