UW News

January 27, 2005

Phillip Chance named to endowed Treuer Chair at Children’s

Allan Treuer, retired owner of the North Star Ice Equipment Co. and an active philanthropist in the Northwest, has made a major gift to Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center to establish the Allan and Phyllis Treuer Endowed Chair in Genetics and Development. Dr. Phillip Chance, professor of pediatrics and neurology, has been selected and approved by the UW Board of Regents as the first holder of the Treuer Chair.

Treuer, a longtime Seattle resident, graduated from the University in 1936. He served in the infantry in World War II, and later helped make North Star Ice Equipment Co. into an industry leader. He and his late wife Phyllis established the Treuer Chair in Genetics and Development to advance research into the genetics and functional biology of inherited childhood diseases.

Chance is chief of the Division of Genetics and Developmental Medicine, where he also directs the Neurogenetics Laboratory, a group of 15 faculty and staff studying developmental disabilities and degenerative disorders of the nervous system. Chance brings the perspective of a pediatrician to the fields of genome science and developmental biology. His research as Treuer Chair will be on the basic mechanisms of neurogenetic disorders, including peripheral nerve diseases, adolescent-onset forms of Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), and developmental brain disorders.