August 05, 2022

Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $4.6 Million For Medical Research In Illinois

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced $4,659,710 in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) medical research grant funding for Illinois institutions. The funding will be put toward research programs across the state to support advancements in sectors ranging from maternal health care to communicative disorders.

“Illinois is home to world-class medical research institutions, but they cannot reach medical breakthroughs without the proper resources. With support from the federal government with today’s announced HHS grants, our state’s researchers can discover new, groundbreaking medical treatments that will give new hope to patients seeking treatment,” said Durbin.

“Across the state, universities are constantly conducting the cutting-edge research necessary for incredible medical advances,” said Duckworth. “As a home for research institutions, Illinois is second to none and with this federal support we can continue to set these institutions up for success while they work to find cures and treatments for illnesses of all kinds.”

Recipients of HHS grants include:

  • Northwestern University at Chicago (Research for Mothers and Children): $263,902
  • Northwestern University at Chicago (Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry Research): $381,290
  • University of Illinois at Chicago (Research and Training in Complementary and Alternative Medicine): $279,825
  • University of Chicago (National Center for Sleep Disorders Research): $643,700
  • Northwestern University at Chicago (Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Research): $240,000
  • Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (Biological Research Related to Deafness and Communicative Disorders): $698,895
  • Rush University Medical Center (Clinical Research Related to Neurological Disorders): $276,500
  • University of Chicago (Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry Research): $410,000
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Cancer Treatment Research): $378,867
  • University of Chicago (Heart and Vascular Diseases Research): $248,469
  • Midwestern University (Cancer Cause and Prevention Research): $449,330
  • University of Illinois at Chicago (Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation Research): $7,000
  • Benedictine University (Biological Research Related to Deafness and Communicative Disorders): $381,932

In March 2021, Durbin introduced the American Cures Act, which would provide annual budget increases of five percent plus inflation at America’s top four biomedical research agencies: the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense Health Program, and the Veterans Medical and Prosthetics Research Program. Over the last seven years, through the Appropriations process, Durbin has successfully worked on a bipartisan basis to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by nearly 50 percent.

-30-