The Robertson Foundation, founded by hedge fund legend Julian Robertson, has announced a $10.2 million gift to Duke University to create a Translational Cell Therapy Center at Duke Medicine. According to a press release, the new center will enable “pioneering cell therapy research and treatment programs for children and adults with cancer, cerebral palsy, stroke and brain injuries suffered at birth.”
“This gift comes at such an important time because it will enable us to move forward with the first placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial in children with CP that has been specifically designed to answer key questions about the efficacy of cord blood treatments in children with this condition,” said Joanne Kurtzberg, MD, who has spent decades researching the topic.
Julian Robertson launched Tiger Management in 1980 after receiving seed capital from friends and family. In the following decades Mr. Robertson rose to great acclaim in the hedge fund industry, hailed as the “Wizard of Wall Street” as Tiger’s successes continued to multiply and investors flocked to the firm’s funds. After shutting down the firm in the late 1990s, Mr. Robertson retired from the hedge fund industry, although he is still an active advisor to the Tiger Seeds, which are run by former Tiger employees.
Some of the more notable Tiger seeds as well as “Tiger Cubs” include: Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management; Bill Hwang of Tiger Asia; Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital; Martin Hughes of Toscafund; Steve Mandel of Lone Pine Capital; Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global Investors; Philip Duff and Gil Caffray of FrontPoint Partners ; Dwight Anderson of Ospraie Management; Arnold Snider of Deerfield Management Company; Paul Touradji of Touradji Capital Management; Manish Chopra of Tiger Veda Management ; and Rob Citrone of Discovery Capital Management.
The Robertson Foundation was established in 1996 by Julian Robertson and his family and makes substantial, high-impact grants with measurable, long-term outcomes. The foundation targets four large areas in its philanthropy within the United States: education, environment, medical research, and religion and spirituality. In the past, the Robertson Foundation has supported medical research in oncology at The Rockefeller University, Cancer Research Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
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