Daughter’s case inspires man to invest in brain research

Billionaire Bill Ackman and his wife gave $400 million to fund a nonprofit focused on brain research and rehabilitation. The New York-based nonprofit will focus on rehabilitation, neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, and human longevity, Ackman wrote in a post on Wednesday. The donation consists of 10 million shares of his hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman added that he will make another gift of a similar size to help the center get started. He has an estimated net worth of nearly $9 billion, according to Forbes.

What inspired Ackman’s donation? His 26-year-old daughter experienced a brain hemorrhage earlier this year, he wrote. Ackman said he sought to “invest unlimited resources to restore her to life” while promising doctors that anything learned from her case would be shared with everyone. Initially, his daughter could not breathe independently, walk, see, or speak. Surgery and aggressive medical care enabled her to recover her cognition, walk 100 steps at a time with assistance, and begin to relearn to speak. She has not yet regained her sight, he said.

The Ackman Oxman Institute will focus on cures, treatments, devices, and rehabilitation for patients instead of academic publishing, he said. The center will be built around a roughly 680,000-square-foot campus in Manhattan, according to Ackman. The nonprofit’s board members will include a Nobel laureate, the founder of a pharmaceutical company, and the neurosurgeon who led his daughter’s care.