Фонд Гиббса выделил 4,5 млн долларов на создание постоянного фонда поддержки исследований заболеваний легких в Университете Луисвилля

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Gibbs Foundation has committed $4.5 million to the University of Louisville to establish a permanent endowment supporting lung disease research, potential transplant innovations and the training of future medical researchers. The gift establishes the Gibbs Foundation Endowment in the UofL School of Medicine and builds on nearly a decade of collaboration between the foundation and university researchers. The partnership has focused in part on ex vivo lung perfusion, a process that allows lungs to be maintained and evaluated outside the body, as well as research aimed at improving outcomes for patients with acute and chronic respiratory conditions. The $4.5 million commitment fulfills a five-year pledge established in 2022 and is designed to provide ongoing financial support for UofL’s respiratory research. “This investment reflects a shared commitment to advancing groundbreaking lung research and improving patient care,” UofL President Gerry Bradley said. “The Gibbs Foundation’s generosity ensures that our researchers can pursue bold ideas today, while guaranteeing that future generations of students and scientists will have the resources to carry this work forward.” Research could expand pool of transplantable lungs Previous Gibbs Foundation support has helped UofL researchers develop a negative-pressure ventilator system that has shown potential for clearing infections from pneumonic lungs outside the body. Researchers plan to use the technology to rehabilitate infected lungs and study transplantation outcomes, creating a research platform for evaluating interventions with potential applications in lung transplant medicine. UofL also plans to partner with a local organ procurement organization to evaluate lungs that previously were rejected for transplantation because of pneumonia. If researchers can successfully rehabilitate some of those organs, the work could eventually help increase the number of lungs potentially available for transplantation. The research program also is pursuing applications involving breath analysis. UofL researchers have developed breath-analysis technology designed to predict which cardiac surgery patients are at greater risk of developing postoperative pneumonia. An upcoming clinical trial will test whether targeted antibiotic treatment before surgery can improve outcomes for those patients. Researchers also plan to explore whether breath analysis could be used for earlier detection of lung transplant rejection and to rapidly differentiate between conditions including pneumonia, emphysema, heart failure and pulmonary embolism in emergency-care settings. Endowment supports medical research pipeline The endowment also will provide long-term support for students and medical trainees working alongside UofL researchers. “With demand for research opportunities now exceeding our capacity, this endowment ensures the work, and the students and trainees who depend on it, can continue in perpetuity,” said Jeff Bumpous, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the UofL School of Medicine. Participants in the research program include undergraduate students from UofL’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering, School of Medicine trainees, surgery residents and doctoral candidates. The endowment will provide support each year for at least one postgraduate student and two undergraduate students to work in the laboratory and receive hands-on research experience. The investment strengthens a research partnership that began in 2016 at UofL’s Cardiovascular Innovation Institute. “The Gibbs Foundation is thrilled to endow the incredible work being done at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute,” said Hannah Roquet, executive director of the Gibbs Foundation. “The program began in 2016 and was the first major gift the foundation made.” Roquet credited foundation founder George Gibbs with initiating the relationship with UofL a decade ago. “This partnership was a catalyst for greater philanthropic impact, and I am thankful to our founder, George Gibbs, who initiated the collaboration a decade ago,” she said. By establishing an endowment rather than funding a single research project, the $4.5 million gift is intended to create a continuing source of support for respiratory research and the development of future physicians, scientists and biomedical researchers at UofL