Larry Ellison-Backed Cancer Institute Opens

A new cancer research institute has opened its doors on L.A.’s Westside.
The Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, the first nonprofit that bears the name of Oracle Corp. founder and centi-billionaire Larry Ellison, completed its move late last year from the USC campus to a new building in Sawtelle, near the corner of Exposition Boulevard and Bundy Drive.

For the first half of this year, the institute was quietly operating in the new five-story, 80,000-square-foot building. Late last month, it officially opened to the public.
“We’re different than other cancer research institutes here,” said David Agus, the institute’s founding director and chief executive. “When patients walk to the treatment rooms, they see the researchers. Patients interact with researchers to harness the power of their working together.”

On the research side, Agus said the focus is on multidisciplinary approaches, such as applying physics models to better understand how cancer works. On the treatment side, researchers are often called in to add their perspective to patient treatment plans and to include patient experiences in their research.

The cancer and research center got its start in 2016 when Ellison pledged $200 million to USC for its development.

“The new institute will invite mathematicians, physicists and other scientists to collaborate with cancer researchers from the traditional disciplines of medicine and biology,” Ellison said in the announcement of his gift. “We believe the interdisciplinary approach will yield up new insights currently hidden in existing patient data.”

The institute opened a few months later on the USC campus, but almost from the outset the goal was to have a geographically independent location. The West L.A. area became the focus of the search for a new site because there already was an affiliated treatment clinic on that side of town.

USC remained a partner, and in July 2018 the university announced the institute would move to a building under construction at 12414 Exposition Blvd. Leimert Park-based Rios Clemente Hale, now known as Rios Inc., was hired as the architectural firm to design the institute.

Just as the official opening date was approaching, the Covid pandemic hit.
“Covid was a major speed bump for research on cancer,” Agus said, referring to the numerous new protocols and capacity limits that had to be put in place. What was intended as a grand opening became a quiet, soft opening instead.

Now, with the official opening out of the way, the next few months will see art installations, including a Jeff Koons elephant sculpture in the lobby.
“Elephants don’t get cancer,” Agus said.