Six weeks into his role as the Coriell Institute for Medical Research’s new President and CEO, Jean-Pierre Issa, MD, recently laid out his vision for Coriell to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s John George.
Dr. Issa, a world-recognized expert in the epigenetics of cancer, said he sees Coriell taking on more work in cancer research. When he joined Coriell at the end of February, he brought several research projects, including examinations of the ways epigenetics can affect outcomes in colon cancer and the role of the microbiome in DNA methylation and colorectal cancer development.
“We are in the post-genome world now,” Dr. Issa told the Philadelphia Business Journal. “We know so much more about genetics, but we still can’t explain all of what we observe.”
Another priority of Coriell’s new chief executive is to further develop the relationships between the Coriell Institute and its neighboring organizations in Camden, New Jersey.
In 2018, Coriell partnered with Cooper University Health and the Cooper University Medical Center to form the Camden Opioid Research Initiative, a unique project funded by the State of New Jersey to study risk factors for opioid use disorder. Projects like that, he said, hold great potential for Coriell and the region’s reputation as a hub for biomedical research.
Dr. Issa also noted that while New Jersey is home to a thriving pharmaceutical industry, the state seriously lags behind some of its neighbors in regards to research funding from the National Institutes of Health – a disparity he hopes to change in his time as Coriell’s President and CEO.
The entire article can be accessed on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s website.
