CHORI Ranked 10th in County for Prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding to Pediatric Hospitals

Newswise — June 10, 2013, Oakland, Calif. – Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is ranked 10th in the nation for research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to children’s hospitals. In 2012, Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland received more than $15 million in awards from the NIH for 25 separate research grants – a 20.4 percent increase in funding compared to 2011.

Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), Children’s Oakland’s internationally renowned biomedical research institute, is considered one of the leading research enterprises in the San Francisco Bay Area. Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is the only children’s hospital in Northern California ranked as a top recipient of NIH awards.

The 2012 NIH grants to CHORI cover a wide range of research including meningococcal vaccine development, the effects of saturated fat and protein on heart disease risk, and cancer development, progression, and prevention.

“This is a major accomplishment in today’s funding climate,” said Bertram Lubin, MD, Children’s Oakland’s president and CEO, and former senior vice president of research. “This funding allows us to conduct leading-edge basic and clinical research that translates into better health outcomes for children both in our hospital and throughout the world.”

Children’s Hospital’s research institute receives about $50 million each year from grants and is among the leading pediatric research institutions in the world. It has worldwide interests with a goal of treating locally and healing globally.

About Children’s Hospital & Research Center OaklandChildren’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is Northern California’s only independent not-for-profit regional medical center for children. Children’s Hospital Oakland is a national leader in many pediatric specialties and sub-specialties including hematology/oncology, neonatology, cardiology, orthopedics, sports medicine, and neurosurgery. The hospital is one of only two solely designated California Level 1 pediatric trauma centers with the largest pediatric inpatient critical care unit in the region. Children’s Hospital has 190 licensed beds, 201 hospital-based physicians in 30 specialties, more than 2,700 employees, and an annual operating budget of more than $350 million. Children’s is also a premier teaching hospital with an outstanding pediatric residency program and a number of unique pediatric subspecialty fellowship programs. To learn more about Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland first 100 years, go to www.100amazingyears.org.

Children’s research program, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), is known internationally for state-of-the-art basic and clinical research and translating it into interventions for treating and preventing human diseases. CHORI has 300 members of its investigative staff, a budget of about $50 million, and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 research centers in National Institutes of Health funding to children’s hospitals. For more information, go to www.childrenshospitaloakland.org and www.chori.org.