Cornell Medical School gets $400 million gift

Weill Medical College of Cornell University has received a $400 million (euro301 million) gift for research and treatment of obesity, diabetes, cancer and diseases of aging, among others.

"The goal is to translate the benefits of research advances immediately to patients," the school said in a statement Wednesday.

The gift also will fund a proposed biomedical research building.

The donations bring the medical school halfway toward its $1.3 billion (euro980 million) capital campaign, started seven months ago.

The money comes from four different sources: Joan and Sanford I. Weill are giving $250 million (euro188 million); Corinne and Maurice R. Greenberg are contributing $25 million (euro18.8 million) and another $25 million from their charity, the Starr Foundation; and an anonymous donor is giving $100 million (euro75.3 million), the school said.

The medical school is named after Sanford I. Weill, the 74-year-old chairman emeritus of Citigroup, who in the past has given the school $200 million.