05.29.24

Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $8.6 Million For Medical Research And Health Center Programs In Illinois

SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced $8,602,005 in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grants to Illinois institutions. A large portion of the funding will be put toward research programs across the state to support medical advancement in various fields, ranging from neurological disorders to cancer research.  This round of grant funding will also support the development of a program for Black asthmatic youth, as well as the operations of two health center programs.

  

“Federal investments in medical research pushes our society forward, bringing us new treatments for the serious conditions that impact so many American families,” said Durbin. “Illinois’ world-class research institutions will make good use of this federal funding to make devastating diseases and conditions like cancer, ALS, and asthma more treatable.”

“Across the state, our universities and research institutions continue to be at the forefront for incredible medical advances,” Duckworth said. “This federal support will help Illinois’s research institutions thrive while they work toward finding cures and treatments for medical conditions and increase patient care.”

Recipients of HHS grants related to medical research include:

  • University of Illinois at Chicago (Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research): $411,143
  • University of Illinois at Chicago (Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research): $360,662
  • Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (Clinical Research Related to Neurological Disorders): $429,925
  • Northwestern University (Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research): $213,407
  • Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (Mental Health Research Grants): $777,949

Recipients of HHS grants related to program development and running health center programming include:

  • Alivio Medical Center, Inc. (Health Center Program): $2,001,784
  • Erie Family Health Center, Inc. (Health Center Program): $4,149,867
  • University of Chicago (Adapting and testing a physical activity dyad intervention for Black girls with asthma and their mothers): $257,268

Durbin has long been a strong advocate for robust medical research.  His legislation, the American Cures Act, would provide annual budget increases of five percent plus inflation at America’s top four biomedical research agencies: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense Health Program, and the Veterans Medical and Prosthetics Research Program.  Thanks to Durbin’s efforts to increase medical research funding, Congress has provided NIH with a 60 percent funding increase over the past nine years.

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