School of Life Sciences
Alex Eugene (Gene) Elefant Insectary Endowment
Alex Eugene (Gene) Elefant Insectary Endowment
Learn more about your impact
Mosquitos are the deadliest animals on the planet, responsible for more human deaths than any other creature. They take the lives of 700,000 people annually through mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, West Nile Virus, Zika and Dengue Fever. The Alex Eugene (Gene) Elefant Insectary Endowment for the ASU Insectary Laboratory was established by his family to fund ground-breaking research that can save lives and reduce human suffering. Gene’s family established this fund because his life was taken suddenly by West Nile Virus on October 6, 2021. Gene was the rock of his family and a dedicated, highly principled manufacturing executive who believed in the power of cross-discipline collaboration and teamwork to identify the root causes of problems and to implement solutions. He was respected by all—family, friends and colleagues.
Impact of Donor Support
- The Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics works to identify predictive biomarkers and understand the molecular underpinnings of human diseases.
- ASU’s new Health Futures Center provides fresh intersections with Mayo Clinic to transform healthcare, including state-of-the-art facilities to support medical research, learning and entrepreneurship.
- The ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center advances the discovery of disease mechanisms, risk factors, biomarkers and drugs for the understanding, detection, tracking, treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.
We believe ASU Biodesign is producing some of the most innovative cancer research in the country."