CAMDEN, NJ – U.S. Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) announced today that the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, located in Camden, has been awarded a $408,617 grant from the National Cancer Institute. This grant will go towards a research project aimed at exploring drug resistance in patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

“South Jersey continues to develop as a center for world-class medical research, and the Coriell Institute is leading the way with important initiatives to cure and prevent disease,” said Congressman Norcross. “Coriell’s groundbreaking research will assist in finding drugs that are more effective in treating people with cancer. I’m excited to see what this brilliant team in Camden will accomplish.”

The project director for this research at Coriell is Dr. Jian Huang, who specializes in stem cell biology and gene engineering. Dr. Huang has previously led research into malignant blood disorders, providing critical insights into the development of leukemia therapies. Through this current project, the researchers will investigate resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), a common cancer growth blocker, in patients suffering from AML.

“Drug resistance in acute myeloid leukemia remains a major hurdle in treating this life-threatening cancer,” said Jian Huang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor and Senior Scientist for Stem Cell Biology and Gene Engineering and PI for the project. “My research is focused on better understanding the genetic causes of that drug resistance and finding ways to determine which drugs are most effective for certain genetic makeups.”

The Coriell Institute for Medical Research, founded in 1953, is a nonprofit research institute. Coriell is one of the world's leading biobanks and distributes biological samples and offers research and biobanking services to scientists around the globe.

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Contact: Carrie Healey, Communications Director
carrie.healey@mail.house.gov