
Larry Ellison's $200M cancer research gift - thaw13579
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-larry-ellison-usc-cancer-20160512-story.html
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nonbel
Meanwhile, people are arguing that $28 billion dollars are already being
wasted each year on research that is not reproducible.

[http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jour...](http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002165)

So that gift may amount to 2-3 days worth of what is already being wasted each
year. Yes, that study may be way off. The scientific way to go about this is
to actually see what is reproducible or not, rather than assume most research
must be reproducible.

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grizzles
Larry is 71. He should be investing way more than this on life sciences
research if he wants to move the needle on his own life span. Given his net
worth, spending at least a billion a year is a no-brainer. The answer to
spending that money effectively is really simple. Invest it in PhD
scholarships. There is no better value for fundamental science ROI on the
planet. $6 billion could buy him 100,000 new PhDs. Every single one could be
working on figuring out how to extend his quantity/quality of life. That's
~10% of his net worth. It's irrational for him to not do it.

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toyg
Larry is not a fool, it's not about him; I think he's reached an age where you
start thinking seriously about leaving the world, and things like hubris and
greed (which drove him before, one could argue) don't make as much sense as
before. His children are what they are and he won't be buying boats once he
dies, so why not help people you like who can make a difference for people
coming after you?

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grizzles
I think people like Larry are greedier than you give them credit for. I can't
help but notice this story that casts Larry in a very benevolent light was
made public on the exact day that litigation started in a massive $9 Billion
dollar trial, Oracle v. Google. Very fresh, I won't forget it. A nice way to
kill two birds with one stone.

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zmmmmm
Is $200m really one of the largest gifts ever to a university? I thought
multiple colleges are funded by huge endowments and this, while incredibly
generous, doesn't seem like it would have rated so highly. As a single data
point, the Broad Institute in Boston by itself was founded mostly by a single
$400m endowment.

~~~
zootam
What’s the difference between a gift and an endowment?

>Gifts are donations of money, tangible items, volunteer time or other
valuable resources that can be used immediately to support the mission of
University of Missouri Extension in the short run (one or two years).

>Endowments are a long-term funding strategy whose proceeds are designated to
be used for a specific purpose. The money put into this fund — the corpus —
will be part of the fund forever in order to earn interest and grow. An MU
Extension endowment account is a pending endowment until the fund balance
reaches $2,500. At that time, paperwork is done to make the endowment
permanent and distributions to county spendable funds begin. Distributions are
generally made monthly once an endowment becomes permanent. The larger the
corpus, the larger the distributions it can generate — distributions that will
continue forever.

Larry isn't giving them a fund to work with and grow, he's literally throwing
$200 million at them.

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rebootthesystem
Can someone with visibility into cancer research please explain if the results
being obtained are proportionate to the massive funding the field has received
for decades?

Sometimes I wonder if the bulk of the capital is being wasted. I could be
wrong.

I know it's a hard problem.

~~~
dmitriy_ko
I don't work in this field but here is answer to your question:
[http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1162](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1162)

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nonbel
That just sounds like a copout. No disease manifests exactly the same way in
every person, and there are plenty enough commonalities amongst cancers to
justify calling it a single disease.

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awinter-py
awesome. always shocked that election candidates don't go here. 'Let's have a
manhattan project to cure the most common 3 cancers' moves the needle on
everything -- scientific competitiveness, long-term health spending, plus
anyone who knows anyone who had cancer will instantly sympathize.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
From time to time, politicians declare war on cancer, as for example President
Nixon did in 1971 with his National Cancer Act and $100 million program that
grew into the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center and a couple of
other initiatives. At the time, some researchers complained that the attention
on cancer took resources away from basic research which was (and still is)
considered equally important.

Ironically, it was HIV that led to better cancer treatments. The crash
research to understand the AIDS virus gave scientists better understanding of
cellular surface structures, immunity, and retrovirus mechanisms, among many
other things, much of which tied into battling cancers.

Getting back to Ellison's generous gift, it's inspiring and heartwarming to
see this great entrepreneur making such a difference. The philanthropy of
Gates, Ellison, and many other American billionaires flies in the face of the
hostility and classism of the "one percenter" slur that has become so in vogue
these past few years.

If Ellison's cancer research institute pushes knowledge forward even just
incrementally, it will have been worth every penny. Every new data point helps
push the field forward. In addition, a salaried job for a scientist is a great
thing in this era of cutbacks and anti-science attitudes. We need brilliant
young minds to see science as a viable career path.

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melling
We just declared a moonshot to help cure cancer(s). Did everyone miss it?

[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/what-vice-
president-b...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/what-vice-president-
biden-s-moonshot-may-mean-cancer-research)

~~~
garrettgrimsley
"Cancer researchers are welcoming but eagerly awaiting more details on Vice
President Joe Biden’s newly announced plan to lead “a moonshot” to cure
cancer."

They announced an announcement.

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known
He should have invested in [http://gelookahead.economist.com/slideshow/start-
ups-fightin...](http://gelookahead.economist.com/slideshow/start-ups-fighting-
cancer/)

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simula67
Does he have cancer ?

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joelbondurant
Larry Ellison has cancer.

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Aloha
Knowing what I know of the man, having worked for him, and met him.

Probably.

I won't say he's a bad guy - he's not, but Larry Ellison is only out for one
thing - Larry Ellison.

