Barnett Institute Receives $3M Donation to Launch Drug Regulatory Analysis Center
(from the Northeastern Voice, 9/26/2008)

The Institute has received a leadership gift from Louis Barnett and his family.   The $3 million donation includes a $1 million challenge grant from the Barnett family, whose 1983 endowment gift is responsible for the name of the Barnett Institute.  The gift will help launch a new Center for Advanced Regulatory Analysis (CARA), including a GMP/GLP Laboratory.  Devised in collaboration with leaders of the biotechnology industry, CARA will play a critical role in ensuring drug safely and quality for consumers, focusing on the regulatory analysis of biotechnology products.  The GMP/GLP Regulatory Laboratory will validate methods developed in the research arm and conduct regulatory analysis. 

“We are grateful to the Barnett family for their ongoing support of the pioneering endeavors of the institute.  They are helping us launch a new initiative that has enormous implications for human health and well-being”, said Joseph Aoun, president of Northeastern University. 

Louis and Madlyn Barnett, of Fort Worth, Texas, have been enthusiastic supporters of the Institute along with their three children Laurie, Rhoda, and Eliot.  Laurie and Eliot, who sit on the institute’s strategic advisory board, emphasized their father’s devotion to scientific research and the family’s commitment to the Barnett Institute under the leadership of its director, Professor Barry Karger, by saying “This donation is a way for us to show our continued support of the institute and, more important, show our father that we support his dreams as the institute moves forward for many years to come.”

Louis Barnett, a longtime friend and colleague of Dr. Karger, refers to the Barnett Institute as his “pride and joy” for representing the future of research and leading-edge technology. 

“Anything that Dr. Karger suggests to me is a good thing to fund.  He is one of the leading people in his field in the world”, said the philanthropist, whose career started with helping develop some of the first plastic polymers at General Electric and later went on to founding one of the largest independent houseware products businesses in the United States. 

(see the full press release by Renata Nyul, Communications and Public Relations, Northeastern University)