Brothers William and Scott Wolfe, philanthropists and health activists, have donated $1.6 million to the University of California (UC), San Diego to establish the Wolfe Lupus Research Fund and Lupus Center of Excellence after their daughters were both diagnosed with the disease, according to an article published in Rancho Santa Fe Review. William Wolfe explained that when his daughter was in high school, she began to experience symptoms of lupus. By the time she was properly diagnosed, he and his daughter were living on the west coast and were unable to find a physician with expertise in the treatment of lupus. After asking their former physician in New York for recommendations, they were led to Ken Kalunian, MD, Professor of Rheumatology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Leader of the new Lupus Center of Excellence. The university emphasized that the funding will support new lupus research initiatives, allow for the appointment of a younger rheumatologist to the rheumatology department, build a network of researchers and patients, and improve clinical care for patients with lupus who reside on the west coast of the United States. Because the development of the new Lupus Center of Excellence may also bring in significantly more patients with lupus to be treated at the university, the new funding will also be used to employ a full-time case manager to help handle the caseload. “[O]ver the past dozen years, we’ve made enormous progress in the treatment of lupus, but we have more to do. Diseases that affect the [immune] system are complicated, so this is a difficult undertaking,” concluded William Wolfe.