Gambhir Family Trust Endows Chair And Fellowship At UCLA With $4 Million Gift

Photo: Stanford University

India-West News Desk

LOS ANGELES, CA – The University of California, Los Angeles, has received a bequest of more than $4 million that will permanently strengthen the training of future physician scientists, marking one of the most significant recent private gifts to its Medical Scientist Training Program.

The gift, made through the Gambhir Family Trust, will fund a $3 million endowed chair and a $1 million fellowship at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Together, the endowments are intended to provide long-term support for the UCLA Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, a highly selective dual degree track that prepares physicians to bridge patient care and biomedical research.

Behind the multimillion-dollar bequest is a family shaped by scientific achievement and profound personal loss.

The gift honors the legacy of Sanjiv “Sam” Gambhir, a UCLA-trained physician scientist who rose to international prominence as a pioneer in molecular imaging and early cancer detection. Gambhir, who earned his PhD and MD at UCLA in the early 1990s, died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 57. His teenage son, Milan, died in 2015 after a nearly two-year battle with glioblastoma, the same aggressive brain cancer Gambhir studied in his laboratory. In 2023, his wife, Aruna Bodapati Gambhir, died after a long fight with breast cancer.

Sangeeta Gambhir, Sam Gambhir’s sister, trustee of the Gambhir Family Trust and herself a UCLA-trained physician, said the family chose UCLA because of the central role the institution played in her brother’s life and career.

“When Sam died, medical science lost a great leader, as did our family,” she said. “Although we are heartbroken by his death, we know Sam’s memory will live on in the future physician scientists and patients who will benefit from his legacy.”

Born in Ambala, India, Gambhir moved to the US with his family as a child and was raised in Phoenix. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate in physics from Arizona State University, he came to UCLA for graduate training, completing a PhD in biomathematics in 1990 and a medical degree in 1993. He joined the UCLA faculty in 1994, where he helped shape the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging and later served as vice chair of molecular and medical pharmacology.

In 2003, Gambhir moved to Stanford School of Medicine, where his career expanded dramatically. He became chair of radiology, and the founding director of multiple interdisciplinary centers, including the Canary Center at Stanford for early cancer detection. Over the course of his career, he co authored nearly 700 peer reviewed papers, held 40 patents and helped launch several biotechnology companies.

The death of his son Milan in 2015 profoundly influenced Gambhir’s work. Colleagues have recalled how he intensified his focus on detecting disease at its earliest stages, driven by the belief that advances in precision health might one day spare other families similar loss.

His wife Aruna Bodapati Gambhir shared that vision. Trained in biochemistry, computer science and business, she earned her MBA from UCLA in 1996 and was widely regarded as a strategic and operational force behind the couple’s advocacy for early cancer detection and precision medicine.

At UCLA, the Gambhir family’s bequest will directly shape how future physician scientists are trained.

The endowed chair will support faculty leadership within the Medical Scientist Training Program, ensuring sustained mentorship and research guidance for students pursuing combined MD and PhD degrees. The fellowship will provide financial support to trainees, reducing the burden of educational costs and allowing students to focus on high risk, high reward biomedical research.

The UCLA Caltech MSTP integrates medical education with rigorous doctoral research, preparing graduates for careers at the forefront of academic medicine, biotechnology and translational science.

“This generous gift from the Gambhir family will go a long way toward supporting future medical science leaders,” said Dr. Olujimi Ajijola, professor of medicine and co director of the program. “It reflects a deep understanding of how physician scientists are trained and why sustained investment is essential.”