Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) is a biomedical research institute affiliated with California’s pediatric medical center, Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland

Children's Hospital Oakland

Children's Hospital Oakland, full name Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland, is a children's hospital in Oakland, California. It is the only independent children’s hospital in the northern part of the state and is designated a Level I pediatric trauma center...

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CHORI is based in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

 operating a 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) biomedical research facility that houses 300 staff members. It includes six research centers conducting focused research on cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

, genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

, immunobiology and vaccine

Vaccine

A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...

 development, nutrition

Nutrition

Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....

 and metabolism, prevention of obesity

Obesity

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...

, cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease

Heart disease or cardiovascular disease are the class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels . While the term technically refers to any disease that affects the cardiovascular system , it is usually used to refer to those related to atherosclerosis...

, and diabetes, sickle cell disease and thalassemia

Thalassemia

Thalassemia is an inherited autosomal recessive blood disease that originated in the Mediterranean region. In thalassemia the genetic defect, which could be either mutation or deletion, results in reduced rate of synthesis or no synthesis of one of the globin chains that make up hemoglobin...

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The National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

 is CHORI's primary funding source.

Research Programs

• Center for Cancer
• Center for Genetics
• Center for Immunobiology & Vaccine Development
• Center for Nutrition & Metabolism
• Center for Prevention of Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease & Diabetes
• Center for Sickle Cell Disease & Thalassemia
• BACPAC Resource Center
• Genetic Testing
• Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
• Sibling Donor Cord Blood

Research Applications

CHORI’s translational research applications include providing cures for blood diseases, developing new vaccines for infectious diseases, and discovering new treatment protocols for previously fatal or debilitating conditions such as cancers, sickle cell disease and thalassemia, diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, pediatric obesity, nutritional deficiencies, birth defects, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis. CHORI is also a teaching institute http://www.chori.org/Education/Introduction/education_training.html with educational programs for high school, college, doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Research Achievements

CHORI is the first research institute in North America to transplant and cure a child with alpha thalassemia major, a leading center for the use of cord blood and bone marrow transplantation in children with sickle cell anemia and thalassemia, and offers the only not-for-profit Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program in the world. The Research Institute’s recombinant DNA library contains over 20 million DNA samples that are used in research programs around the world.

History

CHORI began in the 1960s with a small group of scientists and initial financial support from Children’s Hospital Oakland and the family of Lt. Bruce Lyon. Founded as the Bruce Lyon Memorial Research Laboratory (BLMRL), it was the first research laboratory in Northern California dedicated exclusively to children’s diseases.
BLMRL was renamed “CHORI,” the research branch of the newly named Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland in 1986.

External links

• CHORI Research Centers
• CHORI Facilities
• Teaching Programs
• Technology Transfer Licensing
• Bruce Ames CHORI Senior Scientist & CAL Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  Bruce Ames
  Bruce Nathan Ames is an American biochemist. He is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute...
  
  
• Children's Hospital & Research Center Foundation
• Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland (CHRCO)