Buck Institute for Research on Aging

History

The Buck Foundation Trust was created by Beryl Hamilton Buck after the death in 1953 of her husband, pathologist Leonard W. Buck. Leonard's father, Frank Buck, was one of the founders of Belridge Oil. When Beryl Buck died in 1975, the bulk of the estate became part of the San Francisco Foundation, about $7.6 million dedicated to "charitable purposes in Marin County" including, "extending help to the problems of aging." The Belridge Oil stock in the trust was bought in 1979 by Shell Oil for $253 million, increasing the trust's value substantially.

Attempts by the San Francisco Foundation to use the cy pres doctrine to spend outside of Marin County resulted in litigation which the SF Foundation lost. As part of a 1986 court settlement, the Marin Community Foundation was established to administer the trust, valued in 2013 at approximately $1 billion. The settlement required that 80% of the trust's annual earnings be distributed to causes specific to Marin County. The remaining 20% is to be distributed among three Marin County organizations:

• The Buck Institute for Research on Aging
• The Buck Institute for Education
• Alcohol Justice, formerly named The Marin Institute, which deals with alcohol-related problems.

In 2016, the institute began talks with the Gladstone Institutes, a San Francisco-based foundation, regarding a possible research alliance or merger. That discussion ended in October 2016.

In December 2022, the institute hosted The Longevity Summit, a two-day conference on ageing, the emerging new biotech companies in the field, and their innovations.

Facilities

The institute is on a 488 acre site located in the foothills of Mount Burdell, north of Novato, California. Of this, a 238 acre portion is dedicated to permanent agricultural use; another 70 acre portion is open public space.

I. M. Pei, who responded in 1989 to a request to submit a proposal to design the research facility, was selected as the architect for the institute's facility. Pei's master plan called for 355,000 sqft of laboratory and facility space. The multi-stage plan calls for five interlocking buildings (four laboratory buildings and a support building) around a one-acre hexagonal courtyard, designed to provide a green oasis for quiet contemplation and outdoor activities. Pei used varied geometric elements and floating staircases, which appear throughout both the administrative and research buildings. The second of four research buildings approved in the master plan was completed in 2012.

As of 2016, the institute had more than $80 million in bond debt from building its Novato headquarters in 1999 and completing its third building in 2012. It was leasing 27,000 sq ft of its campus to for-profit businesses, including BioMarin, Ultragenyx, Cellular Dynamics, An2H Discovery Limited, and Excel Venture Management.

Research

The Buck Institute's research program has ten focus areas related to geriatrics and longevity. The institute had about 250 staff members as of 2017.

Buck Institute conducts its research programs through twenty laboratories that focus on specific subjects. After a 12-year dispute with local animal activists, the institute agreed to limit research to animals no higher than rats and mice; many laboratories use no animals at all.

As of 2013, about half of the institute's support came from peer-reviewed grants from the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies. Foundations and private donors contributed another 35% of the funding. An endowment from the Buck Trust Fund provided approximately 15% of the annual budget.

Grant revenue in 2015 was $17.4 million, compared to more than $28 million in 2011.

In 2015, California researchers opened the world's largest publicly available stem cell bank, with samples stored at the Buck Institute. The initial bank had 300 stem cell lines, with an ultimate goal of 9,000 lines.

In 2016, the institute launched a startup, called Unity Biotechnology First Company, aimed at developing medicines to treat age-related diseases and boost healthy lifespans.

One drug developed at the institute, rapamycin, is being researched by Mount Tam Biotechnologies, a private company named for Mount Tamalpais, the highest peak in Marin County, with the institute owning significant legal rights to the drug.

Leadership

The founding president and CEO, Dale Bredesen, now heads the lab focused on Alzheimer's disease research. In July 2010 he was succeeded by Brian K. Kennedy, who resigned in October 2016. The institute's current president and CEO, Eric M. Verdin, was appointed in November 2016.

Notable faculty

• Judith Campisi
• Heinrich Jasper
• Brian K. Kennedy
• Eric Verdin
• David G. Nicholls
• Alex Zhavoronkov

Gallery

File:Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California -- entry sign.jpg|Entry sign for the Buck Institute, on Redwood Blvd. File:Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California -- main entrance.jpg|The main entrance of the Buck Institute File:Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California -- second building, from courtyard.jpg|The second building of the Buck Institute File:Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California -- main building, from courtyard.jpg|The Administration Building of the Buck Institute, as seen from the courtyard File:Buck Institute - entrance to Drexler Auditorium.jpg|Lobby entrance to Drexler Auditorium, in the Administrative Building File:Buck Institute - inside Drexler Auditorium.jpg|Inside Drexler Auditorium, in the Administrative Building

References

References

1. On January 1, 2011, the name of the institute was changed from "Buck Institute for Age Research"
2. Russo, Eugene. (February 5, 2001). "Forging a Palace for Research on Aging".
3. [https://glennfoundation.org/glenn-centers/buck-institute/ page of Buck Institute on website of Glenn Foundation for Medical Research]
4. Cox, Patrick. "This Company With Anti-Aging Drug Is Secretly Preparing For Trump's New FDA". Forbes.
5. "Buck Institute for Age Research". Pei Cobb Freed and Partners.
6. "The Buck is Growing". Marin Magazine.
7. (1998-01-01). "The San Francisco Foundation: The Dilemma of the Buck Trust (A)". [[Harvard Business Review]].
8. Dale, Harvey P.. (March 18, 1987). "The Buck Trust". [[New York University]].
9. Friedman, Lawrence Mier. (2009). "Dead Hands: a social history of wills, trusts, and inheritance law". [[Stanford University Press]].
10. "About MCF". Marin Community Foundation.
11. "The BIE Story". Buck Institute for Education.
12. Halstead, Richard. (2016-10-28). "Buck Institute changes CEOs as talks with Gladstone Institutes fizzle".
13. Mazin, Arkadi. (December 20, 2022). "The Science-Packed Longevity Summit at the Buck Institute".
14. (2019-05-16). "Famed architect I.M. Pei dies at 102; designed Buck Institute in Novato".
15. (2003-07-25). "Asking age-old questions / At Buck Institute in Novato, top scientists investigate how we grow old".
16. Keeling, Brock. (2019-05-16). "I.M. Pei left lasting impression in Novato with the Buck Institute".
17. Wood, Jim. (2011-08-17). "The Buck is Growing".
18. Halstead, Richard. (2016-11-27). "Novato: Buck institute shakeup leaves lingering funding, leadership questions".
19. "Focus Areas - BUCK". BUCK.
20. (16 March 2017). "Buck Institute could lose $3.2M under proposed NIH cuts". The North Bay Business Journal.
21. "News & Events, Quick Facts". Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
22. Khury, Stela. (September 1, 2015). "World's largest public stem cell bank inaugurated in California". The Sacramento Bee.
23. Dunn, James. (2016-02-03). "Buck Institute launches Unity Biotechnology".
24. Davidson, Keay. (2004-09-13). "Researchers discover 'Jekyll and Hyde' cancer gene/Amount of a specific protein determines whether a tumor is created or suppressed". [[San Francisco Chronicle]].
25. Halstead, Richard. (2016-11-01). "At Buck Institute, second top executive resigns".