Announcing the Gates Institute, 5-11-22

Dear Colleagues,

Earlier today, we announced a tremendous philanthropic commitment from the Gates Frontiers Fund that will help establish a leading-edge research and development institute at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The Gates Institute will serve as a hub of investigation and discovery with a deep focus on regenerative medicine and cellular and gene therapies. 

With this generous gift, the Gates Frontiers Fund is partnering with the university on an investment in the Gates Institute that will grow to up to $200 million over the next five years and propel our research efforts in these burgeoning fields to new and greater heights. 

Designed to accelerate the pace of discovery and to streamline the translation of bold ideas from the lab to the clinic, the Gates Institute will bring together top talent and foster collaboration to take the latest therapies to patients at unprecedented speed and scope. The new institute will add great value to the innovation ecosystem on our campus by building on the strengths and successes of the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility, and by working in close collaboration with CU Innovations. 

We are pleased to announce that Terry Fry, MD, will become the Gates Institute’s inaugural executive director. An internationally renowned physician-scientist with expertise in CAR-T therapies, Dr. Fry currently serves as a clinical professor of pediatric oncology at the CU School of Medicine and as senior vice president and head of T-cell therapeutics with Sana Biotechnology.

This commitment from the Gates Frontiers Fund, co-chaired by prominent Colorado philanthropists Diane Gates Wallach and John Gates, is among the largest in our campus history and in the state of Colorado. It represents a shared commitment to the promise of regenerative medicine, and the untold potential of cell and gene therapies for a host of diseases and conditions.

We are proud of our longstanding partnership with the Gates family spanning many decades. The Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine was established here in 2006 with a generous gift in memory of entrepreneur and philanthropist Charles C. Gates, who, diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, developed a strong passion for regenerative medicine and its abundant applications.

Dennis Roop, PhD, became the Gates Center’s founding director 15 years ago, and set the center on a trajectory of achievement and growth. We are grateful for Dr. Roop’s successful leadership and eager for his future contributions at the new Gates Institute. 

The Gates Institute is a possibility because of you. It is the innovative, boundary-pushing work that you do every day that inspires partnerships like this one. This transformational investment builds on the foundation you have helped create, and opens up countless possibilities for people in Colorado and far beyond.

Please join us in celebrating this exciting news and all that this special philanthropic commitment from the Gates Frontiers Fund will make possible.

Sincerely,

Don Elliman
Chancellor

John J. Reilly, Jr., MD
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs