Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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| Founded | 1953 |
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| Founder | Howard Hughes |
| Focus | Biological and Medical research and Science Education |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 38°59′55″N 77°4′47″W / 38.99861°N 77.07972°WCoordinates: 38°59′55″N 77°4′47″W / 38.99861°N 77.07972°W |
| Method | Laboratories, Funding |
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Key people
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| Endowment | US$18.2 billion |
| Website | hhmi.org |
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United States. HHMI spends about $1 million per HHMI Investigator per year, which amounts to annual investment in biomedical research of about $825 million. The institute has an endowment of $18.2 billion, making it the second-wealthiest philanthropic organization in the United States and the second-best endowed medical research foundation in the world. HHMI is the former owner of the Hughes Aircraft Company - an American aerospace firm which was divested to various firms over time.
Initially, the institute was formed with the stated goal of basic research including trying to understand, in Hughes's words, "the genesis of life itself." Despite its principles, in the early days it was generally viewed as largely a tax haven for Hughes's huge personal fortune. Hughes was the sole trustee of HHMI and transferred all his stock of Hughes Aircraft to the institute, in effect turning the large defense contractor into a tax-exempt charity. For many years the Institute grappled with maintaining its non-profit status; the Internal Revenue Service challenged its "charitable" status which made it tax exempt. Partly in response to such claims, starting in the late 1950s it began funding 47 investigators researching at eight different institutions; however, it remained a modest enterprise for several decades. The institute was initially located in Miami, Florida in 1953. Hughes's internist, Dr. Verne Mason, who treated Hughes after his 1946 plane crash, was chairman of the institute's medical advisory committee. The institute moved to Coconut Grove, Florida, in the mid-1970s and then to Bethesda, Maryland, in 1976. In 1993 the institute moved to its current headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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