A $10 million gift from the Killion family of Birmingham to the University of Alabama at Birmingham will expand research focusing on Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, as well as ALS.
The gift will create the Wayne Killion Endowment for the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics. It will also rename the center, which was founded in 2007, the Killion Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics.
“This gift will have a permanent impact on neurodegenerative diseases,” said David Standaert, M.D., Ph.D., the John N. Whitaker Professor and chair of the UAB Department of Neurology, founding director of the center and a renowned expert on Parkinson’s disease. “We are endowing all the funds from this gift because we want to maximize the long-term impact. It’s going to fuel both research and education by training future generations of scientists, which is very important. In some ways, training lasts longer than any single research project. One research project hopefully moves us toward progress. But training a scientist will have a 40- or 50-year impact.”
Wayne Killion Sr. was president and an owner of industrial insulation company Shook & Fletcher for many years. He suffered from Alzheimer’s and died in 2013. His son, Wayne Jr., was a physician who took over the family business from his father. He was diagnosed in 2010 with corticobasal degeneration and died in 2022. His son, Wayne III, an attorney, was diagnosed with ALS and died in 2024.
“My father-in-law was a very generous man and would be very proud of the legacy he was able to create,” said Sandy Killion, who was married to Wayne Killion Jr. “My hope is that combining the amount will have a bigger impact on researching neurodegenerative diseases. Maybe someday, somehow, they are going to figure out a way to prevent, to cure and to increase quality of life for patients, because these diseases are horrible.”
