January 25, 2007

Chicago Biomedical Consortium pays tribute to Searle family

The Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) held a reception last month at the Chicago Cultural Center honoring the family of John G. Searle for its commitment to the CBC through The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust.

The CBC is a collaboration in biomedical research and education of Northwestern, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago with an initial focus on systems biology. Earlier this year, The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust awarded the CBC $5 million, the first of a planned five-year donation of $5 million per year for a total of $25 million.

In addition to honoring the Searles, the event highlighted the first research projects funded by the CBC, representing current grants of more than $2 million. Subjects included RNA and its impact on the expression of specific traits in individuals and species; the construction of artificial viruses that can safely deliver gene therapies; and the use of a systems approach to understand how the parts of a living cell work together to bring the whole cell to life.

President Henry S. Bienen attended the reception along with Sylvia Manning, chancellor, University of Illinois at Chicago; Robert J. Zimmer, president, University of Chicago; Searle family members; Terry Mazany, president and chief executive officer, The Chicago Community Trust; and CBC scientists.