A California-based drug company has given the University of Kansas $1 million to help fund a chemistry professorship, school officials announced today.
The money from Gilead Sciences will help pay for a position honoring Valentino Stella, a KU distinguished professor of pharmaceutical chemistry.
Gilead is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, Calif. It develops, manufactures and sells treatments for cancer and infectious diseases.
Ken Audus, dean of KU’s pharmacy school, said in a prepared statement that the gift would allow the hiring of, “another world-class researcher and teacher to work in the area of drug development and discovery.”
Stella is in his 38th year at the pharmacy school and is internationally known for pharmaceutical discoveries, officials said. He invented or co-invented 37 patents for drugs to treat epilepsy, cancer, AIDS, and also an anasthetic. He is co-leader of the KU Cancer Center’s drug discovery and experimental therapeutics program.
A native of Melbourne, Australia, Stella graduated from the Victorian College of Pharmacy there. He completed a doctorate in analytical pharmaceutical chemistry at KU, where he studied under the late Takeru Higuchi. Stella was named the 2011 recipient of the Takeru Higuchi Research Prize, an international award recognizing accomplishments in pharmaceutical sciences.