UCLA Research Park Gets $120M Boost

The University of California at Los Angeles is accelerating plans for a landmark life sciences research campus on L.A.’s Westside thanks to a $120 million gift.

Billionaire surgeon and investor Dr. Gary K. Michelson and his wife Alya Michelson provided the nine-figure investment to help launch the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy. The institute will be the anchor tenant, using 360,000 square feet at the under-construction UCLA Research Park at the former Westside Pavilion.

The gift includes $50 million for the rapid development of vaccines and $50 million for research focused on the microbiome to enhance human health, the university announced. The mission of the immunology and immunotherapy institute is to focus on research that prevents diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.

“Immunology is the mediator of nearly all human diseases, whether we’re talking about cancer or heart disease or Alzheimer’s,” Gary Michelson said in a statement. “The vision for this institute is to become a ‘field of dreams’ — the world’s leading center for the study of the immune system to develop advanced immunotherapies to prevent, treat, and cure all of the diseases that afflict people today and to end these diseases in our lifetime.”

Another $20 million will be used as research grants for young scientists advancing immunotherapy, human immunology and vaccine discovery.

“The gift will change countless lives here and across the globe,” UCLA Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt said in a statement.

The institute — co-founded by Meyer Luskin, Dr. Eric Esrailian, Dr. Arie Belldegrun, Michael Milken and Sean Parker — will share space at the 700,000-square-foot research park with the university’s Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.

UCLA bought the defunct mall — which was set to become an expensive office campus for Google (GOOGL) before the generational rise in remote work — for $700 million in January in what was one of the most significant real estate transactions in L.A. in the past couple of years. 

“The California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA’s Research Park is yet another proof point that California remains the epicenter of global innovation — an endeavor that will benefit California, the United States and the world,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

UCLA has been expanding around the region and taking advantage of the changing commercial real estate market. Last summer, the university acquired the historic Trust Building in Downtown L.A. for less than $40 million to expand with new classrooms and administration offices. UCLA also acquired a 24.5-acre campus in Rancho Palos Verdes from Marymount California University and an 11-acre residential site in San Pedro, Calif., for $80 million in January 2023.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.