BUNDLE OF BLESSINGS

LOOKE GIFT HONORS LEADERSHIP, PLATINUM PATIENT SERVICES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES RESEARCH

Carole Walter Looke and Jim Looke, two of Houston Methodist’s longest-standing benefactors, were reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic. They wanted to encourage evidence-based science and pay tribute to those who have kept the public well. They decided to make a 2021 gift to Houston Methodist that served three purposes: honor Houston Methodist’s leadership, reward Platinum Patient Services employees and enable top physician-scientists to battle future pandemics through research. “I’m proud of my family’s decadeslong relationship with Houston Methodist,” says Carole Walter Looke. “They have been there for us, so we want to be there for them. We watched Houston Methodist leaders and front-line workers persevere during the pandemic. We wanted to say, ‘thank you.’” The Looke couple’s 2021 gift was made in honor of some of Houston Methodist’s top leaders, including Dr. Marc L. Boom, Houston Methodist president and CEO; Roberta L. Schwartz, executive vice president and chief innovation officer; Alice Baker, director of Platinum Patient Services; and Susan Coulter, Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation president and CEO. It sponsors memberships in The Society for Leading Medicine, Houston Methodist’s annual giving society, for all members of the Platinum team. “It was important to us that this gift thanked and acknowledged the tremendous efforts of those at Houston Methodist who cared for patients over the past two years,” says Carole Looke. When Platinum team members received news of their Society memberships, they were thrilled. “This gift is among the most thoughtful, generous gifts I have received in my 30-year health care career,” says Christian Cardenas Silva. The couple also wanted to acknowledge and support the physicians and scientists who provided cuttingedge treatments and prevention strategies during the pandemic. Their gift helps physician-scientists target two scientific technologies that experienced advances because of the COVID-19 pandemic: RNA therapeutics and monoclonal antibody therapy. These technologies have received enhanced publicity throughout the pandemic, and this gift will enable the physician-scientists involved to take these advances in novel directions.

Center for RNA Therapeutics Vaccines to combat COVID-19 are a medical marvel, brought to market with record safety, effectiveness and speed. Still, the RNA technology can improve.

Dr. John P. Cooke, the Joseph C. “Rusty” Walter and Carole Walter Looke Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Disease Research and medical director for the Houston Methodist Center for RNA Therapeutics, works with his team to advance this type of therapy. The first-generation COVID-19 vaccines used a linear piece of mRNA to send instructions to the immune system and encourage an immune response. Dr. Cooke and his team’s second-generation vaccines will use a circular form of mRNA, which is more stable, providing the immune system with additional time to read and react to the instructions. Thus, a circular mRNA vaccine could provide immunity in one shot, which may attract more people to get vaccinated. These mRNA therapeutic advances will have applications for a variety of diseases — from other infectious diseases, to cancers, to heart failure and aging.

Antibody Discovery & Acceleration of Protein Therapeutics (ADAPT) ADAPT is a new program that will use state-of-the-art science to rapidly identify lifesaving human monoclonal antibodies that neutralize new SARS-CoV-2 variants as soon as they arise. The new antibodies can be developed into future therapeutics and coupled with the successful SARSCoV-2 genome sequencing occurring at Houston Methodist. There is no other program like ADAPT in the world. “ADAPT is powerful, cuttingedge translational science,” says Dr. Jim Musser, the Fondren Presidential Distinguished Chair in the Houston Methodist Research Institute, professor of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, and director of the Center for Molecular & Translational Human Infectious Diseases Research. “I can’t overstate how excited we are to lead this project. Mr. and Mrs. Looke’s gift will push this initiative forward.”

* * * Prior gifts from the Lookes have established the C. James & Carole Walter Looke Family Pavilion in Walter Tower (Looke 21) — a premium in-patient unit designed to combine the best medical care with luxurious amenities and top-tier patient services — as well as the Looke Sanctuary, also in Walter Tower, which serves as an in-hospital refuge for patients and physicians alike to be in the presence of God.

Currently, the Looke family sponsors two fundraising challenges: the Looke Cancer Matching Fund and the Looke Transplant Matching Fund. They also established the C. James and Carole Walter Looke Presidential Distinguished Centennial Chair in Behavioral Health, held by Dr. Benjamin Weinstein since 2018.