A $2.5 million gift by longtime City of Hope supporters Morgan and Helen Chu has established an endowed chair in Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope. Richard Jove., Ph.D., the institute’s director and professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine, is the first holder of the Morgan and Helen Chu Director’s Chair.

Helen and Morgan Chu

Morgan Chu, J.D., a partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm of Irell & Manella LLP, is considered one of the most accomplished trial attorneys in the nation and a pioneer in the areas of technology and intellectual property law. The Chus’ gift builds on recent, significant contributions to City of Hope by the Irell & Manella firm, including a $3 million gift to endow a chair for City of Hope’s cancer center director, a $5 million gift (matched by an additional $5 million) to City of Hope’s graduate school and a $2 million gift to create a visiting professorship.

“Helen and I are pleased to support City of Hope and the innovative science of the Beckman Research Institute,” Chu said. “Many of today’s most promising medical treatments — from synthetic human insulin to the technology used to create some of the most powerful cancer drugs — stem from the groundbreaking work of City of Hope scientists.”

Founded in 1983, City of Hope’s Beckman Research Institute was the first of only five Beckman institutes endowed by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.