The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard became reality on 1st July, when it was officially established as a permanent non-profit organisation dedicated to genomic research, following a $100m (£61m) payment from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

This is the first installment of the philanthropists’ pledge of a $400m (£248m) endowment gift to the Cambridge-based genomic medicine research institute.

“Our goal in funding the Broad Institute is simple: to improve the human condition,” said Eli Broad. “Edye and I are convinced that the hundreds of passionate scientists at the Broad Institute will identify the genes responsible for disease and will discover cures or completely eliminate diseases altogether. We believe that our investment will put the Broad Institute firmly on the path toward this goal and will ultimately build an endowment of $1bn to support the Institute in its mission of completely transforming medicine.”

Initially launched in 2004 as a partnership between MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals, and the Whitehead Institute, the Broad Institute was established to discover the knowledge buried in the human genome and use it to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to disease.

The Broads announced a $400m (£248m) endowment last September, on top of previous $200m (£124m) in commitments to the Broad Institute. The Broad Foundation will continue to make installments, with the goal of growing the endowment to $1 bn through investment and additional gifts.

For more information visit The Broad Foundation.