A Plan for Estate Giving: Best Practice Includes Gift Letter
granulomatosis, an aggressive disease that causes inflammation of blood vessels, destroying tissue by limiting blood flow throughout the body.
The fine network of vessels in the eye is vulnerable to
People make bequests because they believe in an institution
the condition, and Dr. Saxe guided Ms. Brandt’s care through
and because it expresses their values, says Jane Langeland,
five major eye surgeries and many other procedures. He also
Michigan Medicine’s director of planned giving. “The sense
prescribed new drug therapies to quiet the vessels and prevent them from reforming. Ms. Brandt remained steadfast, supported
of purpose and personal satisfaction someone can feel by
by her husband, James B. Thompson. Her vision eventually
making a gift to benefit the community is very meaningful.”
returned to 20/40. Physicians from across U-M also helped Ms.
Brandt overcome a long list of ailments arising from Wegener’s
Eye Center in your estate plans, ensuring that we know
disease, including listlessness, memory loss, and difficulty speak-
how the funds should be used once they are received can
ing and walking.
be important for achieving your goals.
To show their gratitude and help ensure that similar care
and new breakthroughs would be available to others, the couple
A best practice is to use general bequest language in
your will or revocable trust and then to create a separate,
made a bequest to establish the Brandt Thompson Vision Re-
more detailed letter that outlines your wishes, says Ms.
search Fund in honor of Dr. Saxe. Created after Mr. Thompson
Langeland. That letter can be updated without having to
died in 2019 — Ms. Brandt passed away two years earlier — the
go back and update your will or revocable trust, giving
fund will support autoimmune disease vision research or retinal
you the flexibility to make changes over time.
disease research. It will be endowed for 20 years and then
expended at the discretion of the Kellogg Eye Center director.
While there are many ways to include the Kellogg
“We want to use these resources just as you intend
and to their maximum benefit,” she says. “Your gift will be
“Philanthropy makes a great difference in what Kellogg
can achieve, and we are proud and grateful to be a part of the
impacting the future of delivery of care.”
legacies of each of our supporters,” says Paul P. Lee, M.D.,
For more information on supporting the Kellogg Eye Center,
J.D., the F. Bruce Fralick Professor and chair of the Department
please contact Lindsay Baden at 734-763-0875 or
of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. “It is inspiring to see
linmwell@umich.edu, or visit giving.medicine.umich.edu.
people make an investment in something they care about — and a privilege to do that work in their memory.”
Restoring Sight in Photoreceptor Degeneration For over a century, the retina
Named intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells
was thought to only use a
(ipRGCs), these novel photoreceptors drive subconscious physi-
unidirectional circuit to process
ologic responses to light such as pupil constriction, enhancement
visual information: photorecep-
of alertness, and regulation of sleep/wake timing. In a previous
tor cells called rods and cones
NIH-funded project, Kwoon Y. Wong, Ph.D., and his students
convert light into electrical
discovered that ipRGCs signal not only out of the retina, but also
signals, which are analyzed
intraretinally to second-order cells called amacrine cells. Unlike
by second-order cells before
most neural circuits, this “backward” signaling pathway does not
reaching retinal output cells
utilize neurotransmitters; instead, ions diffuse from ipRGCs to the
called ganglion cells, which
amacrine cells through intercellular channels called gap junctions.
then signal to higher brain
areas to produce conscious
the structure and function of this unusual circuit. Because this cir-
Dr. Wong has been awarded an NIH R01 grant to elucidate
visual perception. This simple view became more complicated
cuit remains light-sensitive in rod/cone-dystrophic retinas, studies
in 2002 when some ganglion cells were found to function as
of its properties could lead to innovative strategies for restoring
photoreceptors.
sight in patients suffering photoreceptor degeneration.
NIH R0-1 GRANTS 29
