CAMDEN, N.J., June 10, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Coriell Institute for Medical Research has won a five-year, $6.5M award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance research on aging, including the creation of cell lines from centenarians.
The agreement supports the National Institute on Aging's (NIA) Aged Cell Bank at Coriell, a diverse collection of biosamples that informs age-related cellular and molecular research studies. Recent scientific publications referencing samples from the NIA Aged Cell Bank include a project that effectively identified new susceptibility genes for Alzheimer's disease, as well as an initiative examining the relationship between skin aging and the proliferation of a common protein.
"Understanding the mechanics of aging is a central question in biology," says Dr. Michael Christman, president and CEO of the Coriell Institute. "Technological advances and the widespread availability of powerful research assets – such as the highly-characterized biospecimens housed at Coriell – are providing the insights we need to understand more about the aging process."
Composed of cell lines, stem cells and DNA samples, the Aged Cell Bank at Coriell is utilized by scientists worldwide investigating a variety of aging-associated conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Progeria, and Werner syndrome.
"An entire network of international laboratories relies on the samples Coriell facilitates through the Aged Cell Bank," says Coriell's Dr. Norman Gerry, principal investigator of the collection. "As life expectancy trends upward, studies on aging and sustainable good health become increasingly important. As such, Coriell's capacity and capability make us uniquely equipped to enable those efforts."
Regarded as one of the world's top sources for biomaterials, Coriell Institute recently won a $14M biobanking grant from the NIH through an open competition for the NIGMS Human Genetic Cell Repository at Coriell, which is sponsored by the National Institute for General Medical Sciences. The collection represents nearly 900 unique diseases across several distinct populations.
For more information about the NIA Aged Cell Bank at Coriell and other biospecimens collections, visit catalog.coriell.org.
About Coriell Institute
Coriell Institute for Medical Research is a pioneer in genomics, examining the utility of genetic information in clinical care through the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative (CPMC) research study (cpmc.coriell.org). Coriell is also unlocking the promise of induced pluripotent stem cells and their role in disease research and drug discovery. Additionally, the Institute continues to be recognized as the world's leading biobank, distributing biological samples and offering research and biobanking services to scientists around the globe. Founded in 1953 and based in Camden, New Jersey, Coriell is an independent, non-profit biomedical research center. For more information, visit www.coriell.org or follow @Coriell_Science on Twitter.