Sandler Foundation offers $20 million challenge gift for UCSF neuroscience center

A $20 million challenge gift to UCSF from the foundation of Bay Area banking veterans Herbert and Marion Sandler will land their family name on the university's new neuroscience building.

The five-story, 237,000-square-foot Sandler Neurosciences Center formally opens this month on the Mission Bay campus of theUniversity of California, San Francisco. Researchers have been moving in since April.

UCSF said it will seek donations to match the gift from the Sandler Foundation, named for the couple who built their fortune around Oakland-based Golden West Financial, the parent company of World Savings Bank.