A new integrative cancer research institute will be built at Rabin Medical Center‘s Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva with a $34 million donation — the largest in Israeli history to fund cancer research.

Under the roof of the hospital’s Davidoff Center for the Treatment and Research of Cancer –which treats one in every seven Israeli cancer patients — the institute will house cancer clinicians as well as experts in behavioral sciences, data and artificial intelligence.

The future Samueli Integrative Cancer Pioneering Institute is named in honor of a $25 million donation from California-based philanthropists Dr. Susan and Dr. Henry Samueli. The remaining $9 million comes from Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest HMO with about 5 million members.

As part of Clalit Health Services, the Samueli Institute will have access to the country’s largest database of cancer patients.

This will enable researchers to create what is described as the world’s first cancer-related, comprehensive “data lake” (centralized repository of raw data) to propel fast-track innovations.

Prof. Gal Markel, head of the Davidoff Center and chairman of the Samueli Integrative Cancer Pioneering Institute, explains that although the data lake “cannot be an open source because of patient privacy, under proper approvals it will serve as an excellent hub for collaborations and partnership.”