William E. and Sandra Davenport of Birmingham, Ala., make gift to support organ transplant research at Mayo Clinic

Thursday, October 11, 2007

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A liver transplant two years ago at Mayo Clinic gave William E. "Gene" Davenport of Birmingham, Ala., another chance at life. Now Mr. Davenport and his wife, Sandra, hope to help medicine achieve similar results for more patients, by providing $1 million to support organ transplant research at Mayo Clinic.

After exhausting options in their home state, Mr. and Mrs. Davenport came to Mayo Clinic in 2005 at the advice of friends, who told them about the liver transplant program in Jacksonville. Launched in 1998, the program has performed more than 1,600 transplants. It is among the largest in the United States, and its median wait time to transplant, 1.1 months, is the shortest median wait time in the country.

"Having been a committed organ donor for over 40 years, I never dreamed that I would someday be the recipient of one," Mr. Davenport says. "Mayo Clinic gave me a second chance at life. My wife, Sandra, and I want to help more people have that same opportunity by supporting Mayo's commitment in this field. Who knows what contribution to our country the next transplant patient at Mayo might make?"

Mr. Davenport is a former president and chief operating officer of Russell Lands Inc., Alabama's largest recreational developer. He and Mrs. Davenport have provided philanthropic support to a number of causes in the Birmingham area.

With the partnership of the Davenports, other philanthropists, grants and other funds that Mayo Clinic sets aside for research, investigators in Jacksonville are pursuing an ambitious vision for transplantation, says Thomas Gonwa, M.D., chair of the Department of Transplantation at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.

"Our research aims are multifaceted," Dr. Gonwa says. "We want to perfect transplant, to achieve as high a result as possible with current drug therapies and surgeries. We also want to develop new immunosuppressive drug therapies, to allow patients to be treated with minimal amounts of drug therapy or even without drug therapy, and we want to develop techniques to utilize every transplantable organ in all patients."

In pursuing these goals, researchers in Jacksonville are seeking to address some of the most prevalent and complex issues in transplantation. These include: acute liver failure; recurrent hepatitis c prevention and treatment; transplantation in high-risk patients; and new immunosuppressive regimens, which are drug regimens transplant recipients follow for the rest of their lives to prevent the immune system from rejecting transplanted organs.

An endowment gift, the Davenports' contribution to Mayo creates a permanent source of support for these activities and new ones that emerge as medicine evolves. Endowment funds are invested, and each year, Mayo uses a portion of the investment income to fund activities in all areas of its mission in patient care, medical education and research. In recognition of the Davenports' generosity, Mayo has created the William E. and Sandra Davenport Endowed Fund for Organ Transplantation Research at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. The fund name will remain in perpetuity, establishing a permanent bond between the Davenports and research discoveries at Mayo Clinic.

"Philanthropy is absolutely critical to our success," Dr. Gonwa says. "So much of what we need in the clinical research arena is in the area of infrastructure or dedicated time to pursue research. It allows us to investigate promising leads, think about what we're doing and analyze data, all of which are essential to innovating medicine."

For information about giving to Mayo Clinic, please call (904) 953-7200. For medical appointments, please call (904) 953-0853.

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