A pair of longtime Northwestern Memorial Hospital donors recently committed $20 million for the establishment of the Dixon Translational Research Fund.

The fund will help scientists collaborate with physicians to improve patient treatment.

The gift, announced Jan. 9, is the largest contribution to one program in the hospital’s history and is one of several donations made by Suzanne and Wesley Dixon since the 1960s.

“We wanted to make this donation to the hospital (to fund a field that would) make a difference,” said Suzanne Dixon, daughter of Frances Searle and the first female member of NU’s Board of Trustees. “That’s where this translational research came into play.”

Translational, or “bench-to-bedside,” research is the practice of taking laboratory findings and applying them in real-life applications.

“This gift will build the bridge between the work that they do and its application in a clinical setting,” said Stephen Falk, president of the Northwestern Memorial Foundation.

Translational research has been used in many fields of medical study at Northwestern Memorial, including cancer therapy trials and fertility preservation.

The newly formed Dixon Translational Research Fund will be a division of the hospital’s Enhancing our lives: The Northwestern Memorial Campaign.

“(This donation) means that the students in the medical school will have more opportunities to work with their professors in seeing their theoretical applications being put to work in a clinical setting,” Falk said. “It makes it real.”

– Erin Dostal