Professor Pledges $105-Million to NYU

By Caroline Preston

The New York University School of Medicine has received a pledge of $105-million from one of its own professors, Jan T. Vilcek. The gift is believed to be the largest made by an active faculty member to an academic medical center, the university said.

Dr. Vilcek joined New York University in 1965 after emigrating from Czechoslovakia. He helped invent Remicade, a successful anti-inflammatory drug on the market since 1998 that is used to fight rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and other inflammatory diseases. The pledge will be met through royalties from the drug's sales.

The school will use the money to support research and education programs in the Department of Microbiology, where Dr. Vilcek is a professor, and the Department of Otolaryngology. In recognition of the gift, the school plans to establish a professorship and laboratories named after Dr. Vilcek and his wife, Marica.

Dr. Vilcek, 72, said he made the gift in gratitude for the university's decades-long support for his research. "I feel indebted to the School of Medicine and want to do as much as I can to help further enhance the basic sciences at this great institution, and also help to secure its role in shaping the future of biomedical science," he said in a statement.

Dr. Vilcek and his wife have also recently started a foundation in New York that will support medical research, as well as arts and culture. Beginning next spring, the Vilcek Foundation will give out annual awards of $50,000 each to two individuals who have made significant achievements in each of those areas after immigrating to the United States.