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When the first running of the Great Race was held in 1977, Mayor Richard Caliguiri was at the front of the pack in a goldenrod-yellow sweatsuit, leading as he always did: by example. When he died in office at age 56, in 1988, from amyloidosis — then considered a rare form of heart failure — the city was devastated. A ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø Foundation fund was established in his memory to study the disease. One dollar from every Great Race registration since 1993 has gone into the Richard S. Caliguiri Fund, raising $250,000. Now, scientists have come to believe that one in four people in the United States who die of heart disease may have undiagnosed amyloidosis.

On Oct. 5, ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø’s Center for Philanthropy announced a new $2 million co-creation initiative to create an endowed research chair at the University of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø School of Medicine. Beginning early next year, Dr. Mark Gladwin, chair of the University of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø’s Department of Medicine, will lead a national search for a world-class scientific researcher who specializes in amyloidosis and heart disease. The research chair will be housed at the school’s Heart, Lung, Blood and Vascular Medicine Institute, where a clinical center is set to open soon. 

Original story appeared in  - Fall 2016