New details emerge for UCLA's Research Park

Late last year, news broke that UCLA would buy the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall and transform it into a hub for biomedical research. Now, an announcement from a philanthropist backing the project sheds additional light on what's to come.

Surgeon and inventor Dr. Gary Michelson, as well as his wife Alya Michelson, have announced that they will give $120 million to help launch the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy. The institute, a public-private partnership intended to research cures and treatments for diseases, will be the principal tenant in the new UCLA research park, occupying 360,000 square feet of the total 700,000-square-foot complex.

“Immunology is the mediator of nearly all human diseases, whether we’re talking about cancer or heart disease or Alzheimer’s,” said Michelson 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.

The $120 million announced by Michelson Philanthropies and the Michelson Medical Research Foundation includes $100 million which would be evenly divided between two entities within the institute. One will focus on vaccine development, and the other on microbiome research tin collaboration with the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center. The remaining $20 million would be used as an endowment offering research grants for young scientists using new processes to advance research into immunotherapy, immunology, and vaccines.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Michelson anticipates up to 5,000 people - including 500 research scientists - working for the institute. Although it is expected that the development of UCLA's research park is expected to take three years, the Times reports that much of the immunology institute could be operating in half that time.

The purchase of the Westside Pavilion is the largest acquisition in the past two years for UCLA, which bought the historic Trust Building in Downtown Los Angeles and the former Marymount California University campus in Rancho Palos Verdes to use as satellite campuses.

The former Westside Pavilion, once slated to serve as an office campus for Google, also includes a 12-screen theater, which could be converted into lecture halls or performance spaces for UCLA's arts, humanities, and social sciences disciplines.

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• Westside Pavilion (Urbanize LA)