The Coriell Institute for Medical Research is moving into bigger digs and is set on becoming one of the nation’s premier biomedical research hubs.
Bigger space means bigger dreams. For Coriell, they’re twofold: supporting the growth of local and emerging biotech companies focused on cancer research, epigenetics, stem cells, and drug development, among other research, and promoting regional scientific and biomedical innovation.
“We are planning to build a new building,” said Dr. Jean-Pierre Issa, President and CEO of the Coriell Institute, in an interview with The Sun Papers earlier this week. “We’re hoping to break ground this summer. It will be a four-story building right in Camden, about a half mile from our current location (at 403 Haddon Ave.), which is on the Cooper University Hospital campus.”
The new building will house the Coriell Institute and the Camden Cancer Research Center, both of which Issa leads, as well as the planned NJ Biomedical Strategic Innovation Center – one of 10 SICs that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority is providing funding to develop throughout the state.
Issa said Coriell’s move has been years in the making and became necessary.
“In addition to us needing space to grow, Cooper University Hospital wants to take over our current space to make into clinical space as part of Cooper’s long-term plans,” added Issa.
“Rather than (us) having to scramble out in a hurry, we have been planning for this for a few years, and now are planning to move out of this space in a couple years.”
Issa said completion of the new building is slated for the end of 2027. He’s hoping it will catapult Coriell into the big leagues of biomedical research.
“Part of my vision as the CEO for Coriell has been to try to reinvigorate research, particularly in Southern New Jersey,” Issa said. “New Jersey lags behind its neighbor states in terms of fundamental biomedical research as measured by objective parameters, such as funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
“One of my proposals to the state – which is what this partnership between Coriell and NJDEA is about – is to provide more space to be able to recruit both researchers and companies to try and improve this discrepancy between New Jersey and its neighbors,” added Issa.
News of Coriell’s move and plans for a science campus follow the groundbreaking for Cooper University’s Health Care’s mega expansion in Camden on Jan. 28.
“Camden has been really a part of this renaissance of some of these blighted inner cities across the United States,” Issa said. “It has been a good example of how fundamental investments by the state and government can completely transform a city. And in the context of this transformation, Camden has become a much safer place, which then allows businesses to consider what else can be done in Camden.”
For Issa, Camden has something else going for it.
“Its proximity to Philadelphia is something that, to me, has always been an attractor in terms of developing biomedical research,” Issa said. “Philadelphia is one of the hotbeds for biomedical research, and Camden, just across the river, has really lagged behind.
“So we, that is, both physicians and scientists in Camden, are seeing an opportunity to essentially bring more biomedical education, research, and clinical care into the region in a way where South Jersey could become a leader for New Jersey rather than simply a satellite of the Philadelphia operations,” added Issa.
Coriell has been in Camden for nearly 72 years. It was founded in 1953 by infectious disease specialist Dr. Lewis L. Coriell, who was instrumental in developing the polio vaccine.
“From a state perspective, I think it makes sense right now,” Issa said. “Biomedical research has really very much been a North Jersey-centric activity with not much going on in the South other than what happens at Corriel and, to a certain degree, at Cooper.
“But now the state is committed to helping us become a second pole for biomedical research activities in the state,” said Issa.
The new 92,000- square foot building will contain four floors, including a vivarium for mice and rodent work and lab space – effectively doubling Coriell’s current research space. The NJ Biomedical SIC will encompass approximately 45,000 square feet, or about half.
“There is a momentum in Camden, and we are taking advantage of this momentum by planning not just one building, but essentially a 10-year plan for multiple buildings on a new science campus,” Issa said. “We hope to attract world-class scientists to Coriell, Cooper, and Rowan University to that science campus.
“We also want to attract world-class biopharmaceutical companies and house them there – essentially emulating what other universities have done in Philadelphia, but doing it in South Jersey to benefit the residents of South Jersey and to increase economic development here.”
