Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $4.4 Million In Medical Research Grants For Illinois

Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $4.4 Million In Medical Research Grants For Illinois

CHICAGO - U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced $4,452,852 in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grants to Illinois institutions. A large portion of the funding will be put towards research programs across the state to support medical advancement in various fields, ranging from cancer research to metabolic research.

"Federal investment 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 more treatable and support prevention programs."

"Investing in our world-renowned medical research facilities plays a critical part in ensuring high quality health care for all Illinoisans, especially those in need of life-saving treatments," Duckworth said. "I will keep working with Senator Durbin to make sure research institutions have the federal support they need to continue improving research and providing high quality care to families across Illinois."

Recipients of HHS grants related to medical research include:

• University of Chicago (National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering): $606,609
• Illinois State University (Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research): $389,468
• University of Chicago (Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research): $184,500
• University of Illinois at Chicago (Research and Training in Complementary and Alternative Medicine): $593,045
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Research): $587,866
• University of Chicago (Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research): $673,366
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research): $743,463
• University of Chicago (Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry Research): $351,769
• Northwestern University at Chicago (Cancer Cause and Prevention Research): $322,766

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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