Game-Changing $15 Million Gift Paves the Way for Future Biomedical Breakthroughs at NYU Langone Health

The Blavatnik Family Foundation's Longtime Support of Pioneering Researcher Evgeny Nudler's Work Holds Promise for Advances in Cancer Therapy, Antibiotic Resistance, and Anti-Aging

, /PRNewswire/ -- NYU Langone Health today announced a $15 million gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation to support research led by Evgeny Nudler, PhD, the Julie Wilson Anderson Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The gift will enable ongoing work in research areas that have yielded decades of discoveries by Dr. Nudler's team, including revelations on how genes are expressed and regulated, how bacteria resist antibiotics, and how cells execute continual DNA repair to prevent cancer and delay aging.

"Len Blavatnik cares deeply about advancing health and is willing to invest in the people and institutions he believes have the most potential to effect change — and to reinvest in them over time as their impact grows," said Dr. Nudler, who was a 2010 recipient of the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists and has received significant research support from the Blavatnik Family Foundation in the past. "This kind of support allows us to attract and retain top talent — the most precious resource in our lab — and gives us the investigative freedom to drive discoveries that could transform people's lives."

"It is essential to support brilliant young scientists like Dr. Nudler who are advancing our understanding of science through their discoveries while simultaneously challenging the scientific community to think bigger and more creatively," said Len Blavatnik, founder of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

"Meaningful advances in health and science depend on top talent working in an environment that bolsters them and removes roadblocks to their success," said Robert I. Grossman, MD, CEO of NYU Langone Health and dean of NYU Grossman School of Medicine. "Thanks to incredible partners like the Blavatnik Family Foundation, we have been able to both recruit outstanding leaders in research and create our culture of exceptionalism, where they can truly thrive."

Dr. Nudler has played a pivotal role in biomedical breakthroughs for decades. Research in his lab has illuminated how cells control their genes — for example, through RNA sensors known as riboswitches, which his team discovered in 2002 — and how cells rapidly detect and repair damage to their macromolecules (DNA and proteins).

A recent study published in Molecular Cell showed that a molecular event called backtracking represents a widespread form of cellular regulation, influencing thousands of human genes. Along with its useful functions, persistent backtracking could result in DNA damage that contributes to cancer risk or the aging process. Targeting when and where backtracking occurs could lead to better interventions.

This study built on earlier work. In 1997, Dr. Nudler published the paper that revealed the existence of backtracking, where the protein "machine" called RNA polymerase sometimes slips backward along the chain it is reading. Backtracking has since been shown to play a pivotal role in gene regulation and DNA repair across all organisms.

Another recent study from Dr. Nudler's team, reported in the journal Nature, used a new technology to inventory genetic differences (mutations) in Escherichia coli at the site where the antibiotic rifampicin attaches to and disables RNA polymerase. The findings were a boon to chemists seeking to engineer more effective antibiotics — ones that bind more tightly to their targets to overcome treatment resistance.

The Blavatnik Family Foundation's very generous contributions have supported investigations like these in the past and will powerfully advance ongoing work in Dr. Nudler's lab.

About the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation provides many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and future leaders with the support and funding needed to solve humankind's greatest challenges. Led by Sir Len Blavatnik, founder and chairman of Access Industries, the Foundation advances and promotes innovation, discovery, and creativity to benefit the whole of society. Over the past decade, the Foundation has contributed more than US$1 billion to more than 250 organizations.

About NYU Langone Health

NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone the No. 1 comprehensive academic medical center in the country for three years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently placed nine of its clinical specialties among the top five in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.

Contact: Arielle Sklar, [email protected]

SOURCE NYU Langone Health System