"If it wasn’t for the Murdock Trust helping us with essential pieces of equipment and new technology for over 30 years, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve our cutting-edge research advancements,” says BRI President Jane Buckner, MD. “Jack Murdock’s belief in scientific knowledge as a key to solving the challenges of our world has made an enormous difference to us.”

Essential New Technology

The Murdock Trust has granted BRI with more than $3 million over 30 years for state-of-the-art core equipment to support the research labs. These include several flow cytometers, histology core laboratory equipment and the CyTOF mass cytometer machine. Recently, the trust granted BRI $308,000 toward a new flow cytometer.

“Fundamental to the success of BRI is directly studying cells from patients with autoimmune diseases and other immune-mediated disorders,” says Adam Lacy-Hulbert, PhD, a BRI principal investigator who will be using the new flow cytometer. “The new flow cytometry machine will greatly increase our capacity to sort and analyze patient samples, and provide high levels of biological containment, as recommended by the National Institutes of Health. This will allow us to expand our research to use new patient groups and techniques, including novel studies into how infections affect the immune response, and keep BRI at the leading edge of basic and translational immunology.”

“Our new machine will provide us with high efficiency cell sorting based on expression of up to 22 different parameters at speeds of up to 25,000 cells per second,” says “Aru” K. Arumuganathan, PhD, director of the BRI Flow Cytometry Core. “The equipment will support the scientific labs at BRI and 19 current grant projects that we’re conducting. We’re grateful to the Murdock Trust for their ongoing significant support.”

Celebrating Its 40th Anniversary

The Murdock Trust is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Jack Murdock lived an inspiring life with many interests and a dedication to community.

He was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1917. Upon graduating from high school, he purchased a shop, with the help of his parents, for the sale and service of radios and electrical appliances. Jack and his technician Howard Vollum eventually founded Tektronix, one of the world’s prominent electronic instrumentation companies.

In 1960, Jack was elected chairman of the board of Tektronix, a position he held until his untimely, accidental death in 1971. In his will, Jack established The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Since its formation on June 30, 1975, the trust has focused most of its grant-making efforts in the five states of the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. A historical emphasis in the trust’s grant awards has been in higher education, scientific research and development, human social services, health care and the arts. Over the years nearly $850 million has been given, placing the trust within the top five largest private foundations in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more about BRI's core laboratories.