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Bentsen Family Donates $1 Million to Create IMM Center

New Senator Lloyd Bentsen Center for Stroke Research will focus on prevention and treatment

 

Former Senator and U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen is known for putting up a good fight in his professional life. In 1998, his courage was tested in his personal life.

After traveling abroad on several business trips, Bentsen returned home only to discover that he had suffered a mild stroke. A few days later, he had another stroke and debilitating seizures. The condition confined him to a wheelchair.

After Bentsen’s devastating bout with stroke, his family searched the country to find the best stroke treatment available. What they discovered was a woeful lack of resources for families suffering from this devastating disease. So the family decided to do something to boost research to prevent and treat stroke – something that Lloyd Bentsen himself could appreciate that would better the lives of future generations. The Bentsens turned their attention to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Thanks to the Bentsen family’s $1 million commitment to the New Frontiers Campaign, the new Senator Lloyd Bentsen Center for Stroke Research will be established at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).

“When my husband first had a stroke, we found there was no particular place to go for help,” said B.A. Bentsen, wife of Lloyd Bentsen. “Lloyd and I said it would be so wonderful if there was a place that offered the latest research and treatment. If doctors could tell who is at risk in the early stages of the disease, these tragedies could be avoided.”

The focus of the Senator Lloyd Bentsen Center for Stroke Research is to prevent and treat stroke by understanding the basic molecular, genetic and environmental factors that lead to stroke. IMM scientists already are working to understand why blood vessels create clots and what role genetics and the environment play in determining a person’s risk for stroke.

By expanding current studies, the IMM stroke research team will be able to collaborate with physicians in the Texas Medical Center, taking their newfound knowledge from bench to bedside – knowledge that could lead to improved treatments and preventive therapies.

Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States. About 700,000 Americans each year suffer a new or recurrent stroke – roughly every 45 seconds. One in every 15 deaths is attributed to stroke, which is the third cause of death behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.

“We are eternally grateful to the Bentsen family for their remarkable gift to support stroke research,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston. “Lloyd Bentsen symbolizes Texas at its best, and we are privileged to have his name associated with this center, which holds the promise of improving the quality of life for people everywhere. The family’s decision to honor him by establishing this center will enable the university to attract additional top-caliber scientists to expand our research efforts into the fundamental causes of this debilitating disease.”

Lan Bentsen, son of Lloyd Bentsen and a member of the UT Health Science Center Development Board, is spearheading a fund-raising effort for the new center. The goal, he said, is to raise $5 million in pledges payable over five years to fund the one-time recruitment and equipping of a world-class team of scientists who will expand and focus the IMM’s current research on stroke prevention and the use of stem cell therapy.

“The creation of this stroke center reflects my father’s philosophy in so many ways and is an appropriate way to recognize what he has done for the people of Texas and the country,” Lan Bentsen said. “We are grateful to his peers and friends who are investing in intellectual capital.”

The younger Bentsen found that the IMM is on the cutting edge for stroke research, particularly the application of gene and stem cell therapy.

“My father-in-law had a heart attack in Vancouver, Canada, in 1999,” Lan Bentsen said. “When the cardiologist asked my father-in-law who his cardiologist was, he said, ‘Dr. Jim Willerson.’ The cardiologist was astonished and replied, ‘Willerson? Jim Willerson is your doctor?’ That’s when I realized just how internationally renowned he is, and I decided to visit with him.”

Willerson explained to Lan Bentsen that, although there was no effective way to prevent stroke, the mapping of the human genome would help researchers identify the culprit and lead to prevention of stroke, but the mapping would not be finished for a few years.

In 2004, a year after the Human Genome Project was completed, the two men reconnected. Willerson shared his vision with Bentsen to create a research center aimed at preventing stroke. The result was the creation of a fund to make the vision a reality.

“I could think of no one else in this country better situated to carry off this than UT Health Science Center,” Lan Bentsen said. “The combination of the Texas Medical Center database and the long range perspective of the UTHSC provide a solid platform for groundbreaking Nobel Prize scale research.”

B. A. Bentsen said her husband is frail and needs constant attention and care after suffering paralysis. She is proud of him for his fortitude and grateful for family and friends.

“Lloyd is wonderful, brave and sweet. Sometimes he can’t remember all the wonderful things that have happened to him in his lifetime, but he never complains,” B.A. Bentsen said. “We are so blessed to take care of him now, and I’m so thankful for the support of his many dear and generous friends.”

Born in Mission, Texas, in 1921, Bentsen was appointed the 69th Secretary of the Treasury by President Bill Clinton in 1993. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999.

A decorated World War II bomber pilot, Bentsen began a long and distinguished career of public service by representing South Texas in the House of Representatives for three terms from 1948 to 1955. Subsequently, he established a successful financial services company in Houston, which he sold in 1970 to campaign and win a seat in the U.S. Senate, defeating an incumbent U.S. Senator in the primary, and George H. W. Bush in the general election.

Rising to chair the powerful Finance Committee, Bentsen’s Senate record includes legislation to protect the pensions of American workers, create the Individual Retirement Account, and improve access to health care for low income women and children. In 1988, he was the Democratic Party’s choice for vice president.

An advocate for free trade, Bentsen’s leadership helped ensure passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, eliminating trade barriers among the United States, Canada and Mexico. Bentsen shepherded the balancing of the budget, which lowered interest rates and brought about the most prosperous decade in U.S. history.

As treasury secretary, Bentsen had a major impact on the promotion of U.S. interests in international financial institutions and positioned the Treasury Department as a regular participant in the international summit process. He helped push the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994, which permits interstate branching of banks.

The Bentsens’ gift brings the $200 million New Frontiers Campaign up to nearly $192 million as of August 2005. The goal of the campaign, chaired by Beth Robertson and co-chaired by Ben Love, is to build and equip a new home for the IMM and to recruit and support additional top scientists in the search for the fundamental mechanisms behind common human diseases.

By Jacqueline Preston, Development