Nancy and Steven Grand Family Donates $25 Million to Technion for Healthy Aging Center
The Nancy and Steven Grand family has donated $25 million to the Technion to establish a research center for healthy aging, funding multidisciplinary studies, a lifespan cohort project, and graduate programs.
The Nancy and Steven Grand family has announced a $25 million donation to the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology to establish a premier research center focused on healthy aging. Nancy Grand emphasized the mission of the new initiative, stating that living to an advanced age loses its value if cognitive decline sets in during one's seventies, and noting that the center will strive to maximize the quality of remaining years.
The Nancy and Steven Grand Center for Healthy Aging, originally founded in 2024 by Prof. Shay Shen-Orr from the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, brings together experts across medicine, engineering, and data science. The initiative advances multidisciplinary research across seven key pillars, including cellular aging mechanisms, systemic aging, cognitive and motor function, personalized medicine with aging biomarkers, tailored nutritional and pharmacological interventions, assistive technologies for independent living, and community-environmental factors.
Each division is led by top Technion faculty members alongside physician-researchers, bridging laboratory science, hospital care, and community outreach. Prof. Shen-Orr noted that biological aging is multifaceted, shaped by everything from unique microscopic DNA characteristics to neighborhood environments and daily dietary habits, expressing profound gratitude to the Grand family for enabling this vital research.
Longitudinal Studies and Graduate Academic Programs
A substantial portion of the funding will support a comprehensive Lifespan Cohort study tracking one thousand adults over multiple years. Participants will undergo regular evaluations measuring stress indicators, gait and mobility, cognitive performance, social engagement, and nutritional habits. Furthermore, the center will launch a dedicated graduate academic program focused on aging research to train the next generation of scientific innovators.
The late Steven Grand was a prominent American real estate tycoon and philanthropist from Michigan who, alongside his wife Nancy, maintained a long-standing tradition of supporting Israeli higher education, particularly the Technion and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan praised the generous contribution as a milestone that strengthens Israel's global role in driving human innovation.
