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Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie just made a power move that has nothing to do with touchdowns. On Tuesday, June 10, Lurie announced a $50 million gift to launch the Lurie Autism Institute (LAI), a joint initiative between the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, per CBSNews. It’s the largest single donation ever made to U.S. academic medical centers focused on autism research.
Lurie’s contribution will power a cutting-edge institute aimed at transforming how we understand, diagnose, and treat autism across a person’s lifespan. And it won’t just benefit children—adults on the spectrum will be front and center, too.
This isn’t just another charitable moment. The Eagles are bringing championship-level commitment to a field desperate for breakthroughs. The Lurie Autism Institute will dive into genetics, study the progression of autism behaviors over time, and use artificial intelligence to identify treatment options faster. Researchers will also focus on clinical trials that blend behavioral strategies with repurposed medications.
Lurie emphasized the urgency of the work in an interview with USA TODAY, noting how today’s advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and AI have created a rare window for progress. The Institute will aim to connect the dots between mountains of research data and real-life therapies—because as Lurie and his team know, families living with autism need answers now, not in a decade.
The search is already underway for a founding director, someone who can match Lurie’s vision with clinical leadership and scientific insight. That leader will help set the tone for an institute built not just on research, but on relentless purpose.
Lurie has been building toward this moment. In 2018, he launched the Eagles Autism Foundation to fund research and promote awareness. His family’s roots in the autism community go back further—his mother, Nancy Lurie Marks, founded the Lurie Center for Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2009.
Now, the Eagles are investing in a new chapter. Not on the field, but in labs, clinics, and homes where discovery matters most. Lurie’s gift may not show up on a scoreboard, but its impact will be felt for generations.
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