The FINANCIAL — Murat Ülker, a leading entrepreneur in Istanbul, Turkey, has contributed $24 million on behalf of the Ülker family to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) to establish the Sabri Ülker Center for Nutrient, Genetic, and Metabolic Research. The gift will address what many scientists consider to be one of the greatest public health threats of the twenty-first century: chronic and complex diseases of a metabolic nature such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
The incidence of these diseases has been increasing at an alarming rate in Turkey and around the globe while solutions have failed to emerge, having a devastating impact on health systems.
The gift is being made in honor of the late Sabri Ülker, who started what is now Yıldız Holding, a multinational corporation based in Turkey. The gift will support work being led by Gökhan S. Hotamisligil, MD, PhD, who is the J.S. Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases at the School of Public Health. The gift will establish the Sabri Ülker Center to integrate advanced molecular and mechanistic research exploring how the body regulates metabolism and processes and uses nutrients. This work is believed to be an important scientific frontier for slowing the worldwide epidemic of metabolic diseases, according to the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Worldwide, obesity has nearly doubled since 1980 and more than 1.4 billion adults aged 20 and older are overweight or obese, leading to an estimated 3.4 million deaths annually. Health consequences of overweight and obesity include heart disease and stroke—the leading causes of death worldwide—diabetes, and several types of cancer. Recent studies have shown the prevalence of obesity in Turkey increasing to nearly 35 percent of the country’s population. Other research demonstrates that 13.7 percent of Turks have been diagnosed with diabetes as of 2010. In the U.S., researchers predict that the number of obese Americans will rise to 164 million by 2030, leading to 7.8 million more cases of diabetes, 6.8 million more cases of coronary heart disease and stroke, and 539,000 more cases of cancer.
“With rates of chronic metabolic disorders skyrocketing across the globe, this transformational gift comes at a time of great need for resources to support our basic research,” says HSPH Dean Julio Frenk. “The knowledge emerging from this line of scientific exploration has tremendous implications for efforts around the globe to prevent and treat problems like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease,” Frenk added.
There is an urgent need for new and innovative approaches to manage the overwhelming burden of chronic diseases and offer better ways to prevent these diseases from developing.
“The Sabri Ülker Center will address this unsustainable trend by developing new strategies and approaches to prevent and treat such debilitating disorders,” said Ali Ülker, grandson of Sabri Ülker and Vice Chairman of the Yıldız Holding Board of Directors. “We hope this contribution to science will benefit humanity greatly and we have every confidence in Professor Hotamisligil’s research and leadership as a world-renowned, preeminent scientist in the field of metabolic diseases.”
The gift will be used to support faculty and researchers, and to train students and young researchers who are merging contemporary, cutting-edge basic mechanistic science to explore nutrients and metabolism. A biennial international symposium will also be organized by the Center.
“We are honored to receive this visionary gift,” said Professor Hotamisligil, a native of Turkey. “The establishment of the Sabri Ülker Center in support of our work has the exciting potential to benefit people in the U.S., Turkey, and around the world, and we are extremely grateful to Murat Ülker for his extraordinary generosity.”
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