In September of 1989, the Preuss Foundation was able to provide $2.625 million of start-up funds for a new laboratory dedicated to the study of nervous system tumors utilizing the techniques of cell biology and molecular genetics. The laboratory is headed by Dr. Mark A. Israel, M.D., formerly chief of the molecular genetics section of the pediatric oncology branch at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. This research facility is a part of the Brain Tumor Research Center headed by Charles Wilson, M.D. of the University of California, San Francisco and is named The Preuss Laboratory for Molecular Biology. This grant was made possible by the generous donation of $2 million from Sol and Helen Price of San Diego, California, and $125,000 from Mrs. Pearl Effron of Orange, California.