Children's Memorial Research Center: News
InTouch Fall 2009
The Fall 2009 issue of InTouch With Research at Children's Memorial Research Center is available. InTouch, published quarterly online, is the newsletter for the research center. Previous issues.
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Children’s Memorial Research Center held its first Biomedical Research Symposium on September 18, 2009. Organized by members of the research center’s Pre- and Postdoctoral Training Program and its director, Hans-Georg Simon, PhD, the all-day event featured talks by trainees, a keynote speaker, poster session with an awards presentation and a reception. D. Woodrow Benson, MD, PhD, Director of Cardiovascular Genetics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, presented the Bernard L. Mirkin, PhD, MD Honorary Lecture. Northwestern University students, scientists from several Chicago universities and Children’s Memorial Hospital clinicians were among the attendees at the event. |
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Leadership appointment
Ram Yogev, MD, has been appointed to the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) Leadership Committee as liaison representing the needs of the clinical and translational research community at Children’s Memorial Research Center. The committee will consider important structural issues and functions, and work with the research center to synchronize priorities and strategies. Yogev is Deputy Director for Research – Clinical Sciences and director of the Clinical and Translational Research Program of the research center. He is Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, the medical director of Section of Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal HIV Infection at Children’s Memorial Hospital, and the Susan B. DePree Founders’ Board Professor of Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal HIV Infection.
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Children's Memorial Hospital publications
On a monthly basis, we compile a list of journal publications by Children's Memorial Hospital authors. Click here to view the list (September 2008 to the present).
Scientific Membership Application - Now Online
Children’s Memorial Research Center has begun its latest membership drive and is now accepting membership applications for its six different programs and 10 centers through the following web based application form. After completing this form, please send a copy of your latest NIH Biosketch or a brief resumé to Peg Rainey at: prainey@childrensmemorial.org.
Established in 1986, Children's Memorial Research Center is the research arm of Children's Memorial Hospital, the pediatric teaching hospital for Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. The research center is also one of 29 interdisciplinary research centers and institutes of the Feinberg School, where principal investigators who are part of the research center are full-time faculty members.
Guided by founding director, Bernard L. Mirkin, PhD, MD, the research center became one of the nation's leading free standing pediatric research entities attracting scientists whose work is supported by prestigious federal and private research funding, and which significantly advances the development of cures for the diseases of children. Soon the fast pace and growth of the research endeavors exceeded best estimates. In 1995, the founders of Children's Memorial Research Center realized their dream when a laboratory structure consisting of 71,000 square feet of space was built on Halsted Street. In 2004 – just one decade since its inception – the laboratory facility expanded to 125,000 total square feet of space.
In 2007, under the leadership of Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD, Children's Memorial Research Center has become a virtual center for all research conducted by Children's Memorial's investigators – whether they work in the facility on Halsted Street, in the hospital, at Marcey Street, at the Feinberg School, or throughout the community. Research funding for Fiscal Year 2008 exceeded $31 million. To date, the research technology portfolio has 12 patent filings and 41 clinical trials. Notable awards include:
Over 200 investigators, 500 staff and numerous trainees contribute to the six growing Programs in Basic Research and Translational Medicine: Cancer Biology and Epigenomics, the Mary Ann & J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program, Clinical & Translational Research, Developmental Biology, Human Molecular Genetics and Neurobiology. In addition, there are 10 Centers of Excellence: Clinical Trials Research, Clinical Immunology, Community Partnerships & Health Promotion, Digestive Diseases & Immunobiology, Falk Brain Tumor Research, HIV/AIDS Research, Neuroblastoma Research, Obesity Management & Prevention, Pediatric Critical Illness & Injury and the Pediatric Practice Research Group.
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The Medical Research Institute Council and the MRIC Pavilion
The Medical Research Institute Council (MRIC) was established in 1951 as a private, independent initiative to raise funds for innovative biomedical research. In 1991, the MRIC became affiliated with Children's Memorial, and since that time has raised more than $33 million. The generous support of the MRIC has been responsible for construction of Phase II of the Children's Memorial Research Center laboratory building on Halsted Street in Lincoln Park, endowed professorships for: the president and scientific director, the Neurobiology Program, the Cancer Biology and Epigenomics Program, and the Bernard L. Mirkin Research Scholar. MRIC funding has led to advanced investigations in cancer, heart disease, genetics, microbiology and neonatology.
Prominent cancer biologist Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD, became the President and Scientific Director of Children’s Memorial Research Center in 2004. Dr. Hendrix is the recipient of a prestigious MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In 2006, she received the Distinguished Woman Faculty Award from the Feinberg School. Scientific objectives of her laboratory include identifying genes that contribute to cancer metastasis, and her major goal is to define important structure/function relationships that provide the biological basis for new therapeutic strategies. She has published over 200 scientific papers and numerous book chapters. An advocate for science and science policy, Dr. Hendrix has testified before the U.S. Congress to increase funding for biomedical research, and serves on the National Institutes of Health's Council of Councils, the NCI's Board of Scientific Advisors, the Research Advisory Panel for the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Board of Directors for the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences, the Board of Directors of Research!America, and the Board for the Campaign for Medical Research. She is the Past President of FASEB (the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology), which consists of over 70,000 members – the largest coalition of biomedical research societies in the U.S. In 2005, Dr. Hendrix was endowed with the Medical Research Institute Council Professorship, President and Scientific Director, Children's Memorial Research Center.
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The Six Research Programs
To encourage a synergy of ideas among investigators in various disciplines, the research center's work is organized around six interdisciplinary research programs:
- Cancer Biology and Epigenomics
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Children's Memorial Research Center
Four Locations
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- Smith Child Health Research
- Developmental Biology
- Clinical and Translational Research
- Human Molecular Genetics
- Neurobiology
The Ten Centers of Excellence
- Chicago City-wide FOCIS Center of Excellence
- Clinical Trials Research
- Community Partnerships & Health Promotion
- Digestive Diseases & Immunobiology
- Falk Brain Tumor Center
- HIV/AIDS Research
- Obesity Management and Prevention
- Neuroblastoma Research
- Pediatric Critical Illness & Injury
- Pediatric Practice Research Group