Funding for a new US$85 million Institute for Childhood and Neglected Diseases is speeding ahead thanks to an extraordinary partnership between The Scripps Research Institute and The Symbolic Motor Car Company. The Wheels of Progress fundraising campaign has raised US$53 million towards construction of a new institute, which is to begin this month on the Scripps campus in La Jolla, California.

John Moores, owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, donated his entire collection of 23 vintage cars to the fundraising effort. Auction of his 1967 Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spyder by Christie's raised US$2.1 million for the center and a second classic car auction raised more than US$1.5 million. Uniquely, the institute will not only house laboratories for 25 research groups but will also contain a museum for vintage cars.

In collaboration with the San Diego Children's Hospital, the new research center will investigate the molecular basis of childhood diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and autism, and will study parasitic diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis. "We are thrilled that people interested in [vintage] automobiles have adopted medical research as a cause," says Richard A. Lerner, president of Scripps.