Life Sciences Capital
  • The Abby and Howard Milstein Chemical Core Facility and the Abby and Howard Milstein Program in Chemical Biology at Weill Cornell Medical College, are funding breakthrough research involving a dual antigen cure for antibiotic-resistant infections. The mutations that lead to antibiotic resistance would be slowed to a point where the impact on pharmaceutical treatments would be almost non-existent. And this would greatly increase the effective lifespan of new antibiotics.
  • Tuberculosis, Malaria and HIV/AIDS are killing millions of people each year. Disease travels across continents, making this a vital concern - not just for the international community, but for Americans, as well. Bioterrorism is a new concern. Antidotes to bacterial weapons are urgently needed.
  • TB affects mostly young adults in the most productive time of their lives. In too many cases, HIV and TB coexist in a deadly synergy. In poorer countries, half of even the healthcare workers are infected.
  • To address all these growing needs, the Milstein family served as the lead sponsor for a Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders symposium, "No Time to Wait." The 2007 worldwide gathering - of scientists, physicians, philanthropists, drug company executives, government officials, international agencies, students and journalists - had one purpose: to make immediate and measurable gains against tuberculosis.
  • One of the priorities that the Milstein's have built into the research program is the development of new drugs that would be delivered as inexpensively as possible to the needy population of Africa.