SPRINGDALE -- A $500,000 donation to the Arkansas Children's Research Institute will help bring customized and effective treatments for cancer and other ailments to the Arkansas Children's Hospital system, officials announced Friday.
The Ryan Gibson Foundation, named for a Springdale native who died of complications from leukemia, presented the gift on the grounds of the Arkansas Children's Northwest hospital that's set to open early next year.
The money will support the research institute's precision medicine program, which can tailor medical treatments based on the genetic code of a patient and of some cancers.
"This community has always been there for our family, and we will always be grateful," said Derek Gibson, Ryan Gibson's brother. "Today is a special day, because we are advancing the cause."
The donation, the Gibson foundation's largest, is part of $1.7 million that will kick-start the precision medicine program in the coming years.
The research will be at the institute in Little Rock, but its findings and progress will inform treatments at the Springdale hospital and other children's hospitals around the country.
Precision medicine allows doctors to predict the effects of different drugs and tweak the amounts of those drugs or choose different ones without the trial and error that sometimes comes with traditional treatment, said Dr. Greg Kearns, the institute's chief research officer.
Metro on 04/15/2017