75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
bloodstream was a quantum scientific leap. Suddenly, it seemed possible that receptors might be unwitting doormen allowing disease to enter the cell — a kind of microscopic Trojan horse. It was an idea that could be applied to many metabolic processes, and it illuminated a new realm of discovery at life's most basic level.
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s soon as he heard the announcement, Rogers called Perot. Getting on the line,
Perot laughed: “When I walked into the office this morning, I told all of my associates that I would be hearing from Ralph today. I said that this was going to cost me.” Before making a donation, Perot did something that proved farsighted. Not thinking it was right that Dallas could celebrate a championship football team that had brought the city great pride yet have no plans to honor two Nobel Prize winners, he sponsored a dinner, using his clout to help attract some 300 community leaders. “Perot Lauds Two Nobel Laureates,” read the headline on the front of The Dallas Morning News Metropolitan section on January 10, 1986. The feature story explained that business and civil leaders had gathered “to hear Perot and other speakers…praise the individuals and the institution that brought Texas its first homegrown Nobel Prize.” The joyous celebration would mark the beginning of Dallas’ ongoing commitment on the part of many in the city to support biomedical education and research. Over the next few years Perot became more involved in the medical school. He gathered input from Goldstein, Brown and others. They explained that the best basic science investigators build their laboratories with both postdoctoral fellows and exceptional students to assist them. While the school had begun a small MD/PhD program in 1978 and was able to After gathering input from Brown and Goldstein, Ross Perot announced that he would provide the funding to create the largest Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) in the country.
offer to participants some financial assistance, funding fell far short of the need. Perot recognized the opportunity and provided a $20 million, 10-year grant, which enabled UT Southwestern to create the single largest and most competitive Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) in the country. At the time, it was thought to be the only program that would enable a student to become an MD/PhD with little or no debt. Perot called it “an investment in people and in intellect that will bring enormous
rewards in the years to come. These funds will help train young scientists who might well make the important medical breakthroughs of the future.” He added: “UT Southwestern is the only institution in this part of the country that has the capability of becoming the best of its kind in the world in the next few years.” Perot’s support was more than financial. He personally attended MSTP functions and spoke to potential candidates. And his contribution was not only critical to UT Southwestern but helped a nation keep among its highest priorities the process of actively identifying, encouraging and financially supporting the next generation of its most brilliant medical researchers. 22