The Kansas University Medical Center has announced plans to create a new center for patients with multiple sclerosis.

KU Med will get help establishing the center with an $800,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a California-based philanthropic organization founded by Conrad Hilton, who began the Hilton Hotels chain. The grant will fund new programming at the center. The Kansas University Endowment Association will help raise money for furnishings.

To make a home for the center, KU Med will renovate a building at 3503 Rainbow Blvd., north of its Kansas City, Kan., campus. Sharon Lynch, a KU professor of neurology, will serve as director. Lynch also operates the Mid America MS Achievement Center, which will become a part of the KU Med multiple sclerosis center.

In addition to research, the center will provide psychological counseling, physical and occupational therapy and recreational therapy for patients with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the brain and spinal chord.