Oracle’s Ellison gives $200 million for cancer research

Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison pledged $200 million to the University of Southern California to create a new center designed to combine traditional medicine with holistic approaches to treat and prevent cancer.

The gift, announced Wednesday evening at a fundraising gala in Santa Monica, will establish the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, an interdisciplinary cancer research center headed by Dr. David Agus, director of USC’s Norris Westside Cancer Center and the Center of Applied Molecular Medicine at the university’s Keck School of Medicine.

“The new institute will invite mathematicians, physicists, and other scientists to collaborate with cancer researchers from the traditional disciplines of medicine and biology,” said Ellison, the Redwood City software maker’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, at the event.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Parker announced a $250 million gift last month to create a San Francisco research institute involving six U.S. institutions focused on the promising field of cancer immunotherapy.