Recognizing the expanding impact on health and health care of computational medicine, artificial intelligence and bioinformatics, Gilbert S. Omenn and his wife, Martha A. Darling, have made a gift of $25 million to the Medical School’s Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics.
With the gift, the Gilbert S. Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics becomes the first named department at U-M and one of the first named medical school basic science departments in the nation.
The Board of Regents approved the department naming Oct. 17.
“Medicine and public health are being transformed with the power of large datasets, new technologies, and the analytical prowess of deep learning models and artificial intelligence,” said Omenn, who has been engaged in U-M’s development of computational medicine and bioinformatics since becoming the first executive vice president for medical affairs, serving from 1997 to 2002.
Omenn is the Harold T. Shapiro Distinguished University Professor of Medicine; professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics, of internal medicine and of human genetics in the Medical School; and professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health.
“We are excited about the creative and intellectually ambitious young people entering this field and the national collaborations and bioethical guardrails already being developed,” Omenn and Darling said.
“We are incredibly appreciative of this gift from Gil and Martha that will be transformational in enabling pivotal discoveries and progress in health care. AI and computational medicine will dramatically change health care delivery, and this gift helps us be at the forefront of that innovation,” said Marschall S. Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs, CEO of Michigan Medicine and dean of the Medical School.
“The vision and generosity of Dr. Omenn and Ms. Darling will strengthen and accelerate the University of Michigan’s place as a leader in the values-driven development of AI and bioinformatics,” said President Santa J. Ono. “Coupled with our commitment to human health and well-being, this gift will catalyze new discoveries and open new possibilities, redefining treatments and transforming lives.”
Computational medicine leverages mathematics and computers to accelerate biomedical discovery and translational research, with the aim of using data to ultimately develop personalized therapies for disease.
The Omenn-Darling gift will be used for strategic investments to further develop the Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics in this field and enhance its national reputation, including the establishment of the Michael A. Savageau Department Chair of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics and an associated endowed fund.
Additionally, $5 million of the funds will enable the department to establish up to five endowed research professorships.
“We are so incredibly fortunate to be beneficiaries of this gift, which will allow us to recruit and retain the best faculty and remain on the cutting-edge of the application of AI, machine learning and other computational methods for helping humankind,” said Brian Athey, the Michael Savageau Collegiate Professor and founding chair of the Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics.
Omenn has been a pioneer within the department since the creation of U-M’s Ph.D. program in bioinformatics in 2000. Recognizing bioinformatics as an emerging field with stakeholders across campus, Omenn and other U-M leaders helped establish the multidisciplinary, cross-university Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics in 2005, with Omenn as director.
A major goal of the gift is to encourage and strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration through the CCMB — especially within the Department of Internal Medicine — to advance AI-driven research initiatives. Omenn and Darling expect the funding will boost partnerships between basic scientists and clinical investigators in many departments.
Portions of the gift will be used to establish the CCMB Interdisciplinary Collaboration Fund to prime these joint initiatives and to establish the Omenn Endowed Research Professorship for his successor as director of the CCMB.
With the burgeoning use of generative and classical AI and machine learning within biomedical research, the department is actively exploring the capacity for these new technologies to change scientific paradigms.
The Omenn DCMB Novel AI Faculty Recruitment and Retention Fund will be established with $5 million of the gift, with an additional $2.5 million to acquire, maintain and enhance advanced computing hardware, software and services.
The gift also will support the department’s educational mission, establishing the Bioinformatics Graduate Program Endowed Fund to support the department’s Master of Science and Ph.D. training programs.
This includes recruiting highly qualified students and trainees, providing fellowships to deserving students, building pipeline programs at the undergraduate and high school levels, establishing remote learning and training programs, and developing collaborative interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities internally, with industry and in national science policy forums.
Omenn and Darling are purpose-driven philanthropists, supporting a wide range of causes and institutions. At U-M they have supported the Medical School, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the University Musical Society and the Livingston Awards for early-career journalists.
They also have made consequential contributions to Reed College, the Hastings Center, Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Harvard Medical School and the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute at Princeton University.
