Lankenau Institute for Medical Research

Lankenau Institute
for Medical Research
Established 1927
President
and CEO		 George C. Prendergast
Address 100 East Lancaster Avenue, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania 19096
484.476.8400
Website www.limr.org

Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research center located in suburban Philadelphia, U.S., on the campus of Lankenau Medical Center. LIMR specializes in basic, clinical, and translational research on cancer and cardiovascular disease. The current President and CEO of LIMR is George C. Prendergast, PhD.

Mission and structure

LIMR’s organizational structure combines clinical and basic science research with product development in an integrated organization that includes a biotechnology company incubator. Every research group at LIMR conducts academic research that is published, but they are also required to translate their work into a marketable product or service, for development and commercialization by LIMR Development, Inc. (LDI), a subsidiary of the Institute. LIMR has coined the term "acapreneurial" to describe this unique organizational model for biomedical research, based on its combination of elements of academic science and entrepreneurial practice that are traditionally conducted apart from each other.

Research

LIMR’s main areas of research are cancer and cardiovascular disease, although the clinical and basic researchers at LIMR also conduct investigations in diabetes, gastroenterology, pulmonology, nephrology, and public health, among others.

The main overarching theme of LIMR's basic research is modifier pathways in disease. Disease modifier pathways do not determine the onset of disease, but rather the severity of disease. In particular, LIMR scientists study general modifiers of age-associated disease that affect inflammation and immunity. For most major diseases, including most age-associated diseases, causes are often difficult to precisely define and treat. In contrast, focusing on disease severity can exert significant clinical benefits, extending health by retarding disease processes to subclinical levels. Medicines such as NSAIDs and cholesterol-lowering drugs are examples of disease-modifying medicines, illustrating the benefits that greater research into disease modifier pathways may provide.

One new pathway of emerging importance that LIMR research has pioneered is the IDO pathway, which modifies inflammatory processes in cancer, autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease and other disorders. Other cancer modifier pathways discovered at LIMR focus on cell membrane dynamics, tissue barrier functions and metabolic homeostasis of thiols or polyamines in diseased cells.

History

The early years and LHRI: 1889-1950

Lankenau Hospital — then known as the German Hospital of the City of Philadelphia — was the site of the city's first bacteriological and chemical research laboratory, founded in 1889.[1] Medical research at Lankenau began in 1918. Stanley P. Reimann, then Lankenau’s Chief Pathologist, initiated efforts to study wound healing in animals as a model to study cell division in cancer with biologist and biochemist Frederick S. Hammett.[2][3] In 1925, Reimann founded the Lankenau Hospital Research Institute (LHRI) and studied how inflammatory processes can stimulate cell division. This founding concept later emerged as a trait of cancer.[4]

Later that year, a new research building for LHRI was dedicated on the Lankenau Hospital campus at Girard and Corinthian Avenues in Philadelphia. Funds were donated by Rodman Wanamaker, son of John Wanamaker, a prominent Philadelphia businessman and the founder of Wanamaker’s department store. In 1927, LHRI began its formal research program, primarily focused on cancer research. This new program built on an existing foundation of research at Lankenau: between 1917 and 1927, Reimann and his colleagues had already published over 40 research papers.[5]

In the 1930s and 1940s, LHRI was supported by the philanthropic efforts of J. Howard Pew and his family, known for the creation of the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Philip T. Sharples, a Philadelphia industrialist and philanthropist.[2] In this era, LHRI’s research also contributed to the fields of nutrition and biochemistry, including key studies by Dr. Mary Bennett that contributed to the discovery of Vitamin B12 as an essential nutrient.[6][7][8] Pew and Sharples were the driving force behind the creation of the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) at Lankenau in 1945. Reimann became the first Scientific Director of the ICR, which was designed with an exclusive focus on cancer research.[2]

Lankenau research at Burholme Park: Foundations of Fox Chase Cancer Center

New laboratory facilities for the ICR of LHRI were constructed in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia at Burholme Park between 1947 and 1949. In 1950, the ICR moved into the new facility, which was adjacent to the American Hospital for Oncology. Thus, the ICR remained in Philadelphia the same year that the Lankenau Hospital moved to its new site in the Philadelphia suburb of Wynnewood.

In 1957, Reimann retired, becoming Director Emeritus of ICR, with Dr. Kaare Rodahl becoming Director of Research at the Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood with responsibilities to also coordinate work at the ICR in Fox Chase. In Wynnewood, LHRI investigators not part of the ICR moved into the first three floors of the Medical Science Building, which was built for the sole purpose of medical research on the new grounds of hospital, on land donated by Mabel Pew Myrin. With this move, LHRI researchers in Wynnewood were organized into the Research Department of Lankenau Hospital.

During Rodahl’s time as director, research at Lankenau expanded significantly with work on cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, aging, alcoholism and work physiology, including occupational medicine, rehabilitation, and environmental stress.[5] By 1964, more than 85 scientists were engaged in these areas of research. Under Rodahl’s leadership, Lankenau research began to attract significant federal funding from NIH as well as other public and private organizations supporting research. From this period onward, federal grants began to form a significant source of revenue supporting investigations, at both Lankenau research sites, supplementing the traditional support obtained from the hospital and from many private foundations and donors.

Notable achievements of the LHRI and ICR in this era include:

It is also notable that many major discoveries at LHRI/ICR were made by principal investigators who were women at a time when the representation of women at such levels was rare in biomedical research. In 1946, four out of ten laboratory heads at ICR were women.

In 1970, Lankenau separated from the ICR, which merged with the American Hospital of Oncology to create the Fox Chase Cancer Center. In 2013, the foundational legacy of Lankenau's cancer research was consolidated further with the purchase of the Fox Chase Cancer Center by Temple University Medical Center.

1970-2000: the post-Fox Chase era

Beginning in the 1970s, cancer research resumed in the Department of Research at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood. In 1981, all research activities in the Department of Research moved into the Lankenau Medical Research Center (LMRC), an independent institution created by the Lankenau Hospital Foundation anticipating changes in the organization of the health care industry.

In 1985, Main Line Health, a nonprofit health system which includes four hospitals in the Main Line suburbs west of Philadelphia, formed and became the parent and holding company for Lankenau Hospital and the Lankenau Hospital Foundation. The LMRC was integrated into Main LIne Health as a separate corporate entity, with the system acting as sole member (owner) but LMRC retaining its own governance board with oversight functions from the Foundation board for certain major actions. During this period, LMRC research began to include a wider community of clinical investigators from the other hospitals in the Main Line Health network, eventually becoming responsible for overseeing clinical research in the entire health system.

Over the next two decades, the LMRC expanded its work into the molecular genetics and cell biology of cancer, cardiovascular disease, aging and transgenic mouse models of disease. In 1992, under the guidance of the LMRC President George Reichard, a new state-of-the-art laboratory facility was constructed on the Lankenau Hospital campus. Currently serving as the home for Lankenau research, the 65,000 sq. ft. facility consists of 16 laboratories, shared equipment rooms, and additional core support laboratories. During the same period, LMRC also designed and built a separate modern vivarium facility for preclinical research, permitting investigations now required by FDA for discovery and development of new drugs, medical assays and devices.

The modern era of molecular biomedical research: 2000-present

In 1998, cellular gerontology researcher Vincent J. Cristofalo, PhD was recruited as LMRC President, recruiting a number of new faculty members including molecular and cellular biologists and physiologists from The Wistar Institute. As part of this expansion in research, in 1999 the name of the LMRC was changed to the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR).

The current President of LIMR, George C. Prendergast, is an expert in cancer genetics and biology who was appointed in 2004. Under his leadership, LIMR has implemented a unique 'acapreneurial' model for biomedical research that combines elements of academic science and biotechnology entrepreneurialism in the same organization. Today, in addition to its tradition in supporting non-profit basic and clinical research, LIMR also houses a biotechnology incubator, where several small start-up companies translate basic discoveries into practical medical applications. In parallel to this effort, the Institute has created academic affiliations with the Jefferson Medical School at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), where LIMR faculty have their primary appointments, and Drexel University, which with LIMR participates as a consortium member of the TJU Kimmel Cancer Center.

In 2007, LIMR supported the creation of two subsidiary companies, LIMR Development, Inc. (LDI) and LIMR Chemical Genomics Center, Inc. (LCGC). LDI serves as the Institute's business development company to capture and commercialize inventions needed to effectively move laboratory discoveries into clinical testing, acting through a master license agreement to manage LIMR patent prosecution and licensing, product development and commercialization, and the space, services and business affairs of the Institute's integrated biotech incubator. LCGC is a medicinal chemical services company that employs a proprietary robotic technology to store and distribute large private collections of up to 10,000,000 medicinal chemicals, acting as an agent to facilitate partnered drug discovery by its academic and pharmaceutical clients.

References

  1. ↑ "The man behind Lankenau Hospital." The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 30, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 The Fox Chase Cancer Center (Philadelphia, PA). 23rd Scientific Report - The Institute for Cancer Research and The Lankenau Hospital Research Institute, 50th Anniversary, Sept. 1977 – Sept. 1978.
  3. ↑ The Hyperplastic Reaction of the Skin to Sulphydryl and its Significance in Neoplasia, Stanley P. Reimann, (from the Lankenau Hospital Research Institute, Philadelphia), The American Journal of Cancer (Now Cancer Research), 1931.
  4. ↑ Stanley Reimann Obituary, AACR, 1968.
  5. 1 2 Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, 80 Years of Research Excellence, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, 1927-2007.
  6. ↑ Metabolism of Sulphur. The replaceability of l-cystine in the diets of rats with some partially oxidized derivatives, Mary A. Bennett, Biochem J. 1937 June;31(6):962–965. PMCID: PMC1267032
  7. ↑ Metabolism of Sulphur. A quantitative study of the replaceability of l-cystine by various sulphur-containing amino-acids in the diet of the albino rat, Mary A. Bennett, Biochem J. 1939 June;33(6):885–892. PMCID: PMC1264461
  8. ↑ Metabolism of Sulphur. The replaceability of dl-methionine in the diet of albino rats with its partially oxidized derivative, dl-methionine sulphoxide, Mary A. Bennett, Biochem J. 1939 November;33(11):1794–1797. PMCID: PMC1264695
  9. ↑ A minute chromosome in chronic granulocytic leukemia, Nowell P, Hungerford D, Science, Nov 1960;132(3438):1497. doi:10.1126/science.132.3438.1488.

External links

Coordinates: 39°59′20″N 75°15′22″W / 39.98882°N 75.25613°W / 39.98882; -75.25613

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