Wistar Institute
 |
|
| Established | 1892 |
|---|---|
| President and CEO | Dario C. Altieri, M.D. |
| Faculty | 109 |
| Staff | 325 |
| Budget | $63,250,000 (2015) |
| Location | University City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Address | 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
| Website | The Wistar Institute |
The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical science, with special expertise in cancer research, immunology, infectious disease and vaccine research. It is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pa. Founded in 1892 as America's first independent, nonprofit, biomedical research institute solely focused on biomedical research and training, Wistar aims to move research advances from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible.
Since 1972, Wistar been a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and holds the NCI's highest rating of "Exceptional" from approximately 1,500 cancer centers across the United States.
Known worldwide for vaccine development, some of the Institute's accomplishments are its contributions to the creation of vaccines for rubella (German measles), rotavirus and rabies.
The Wistar Institute Cancer Center’s pioneering work spans from studying genetics and the molecular and cellular events underlying how cancer develops, to the role of the microenvironment surrounding the tumor in how cancer spreads (metastasis), with the aim of making discoveries that could someday translate into advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Wistar maintains one of the largest U.S. labs outside of the NIH.
A global leader in vaccine development, the Wistar Institute’s half-century of achievement in vaccine development has saved countless lives in the U.S. and abroad. Discoveries at Wistar have led to the creation of vaccines that protect children and adults from widespread, debilitating and life-threatening diseases.
Education and training the next generation of scientists are central to The Wistar Institute’s mission.
The Wistar Institute was founded in 1892 as the nation’s first independent medical research facility.
It is named for Caspar Wistar, a prominent Philadelphia physician. Born in 1761, Wistar began his medical practice in 1787 and later wrote the first American anatomy textbook. To augment his medical lectures and illustrate comparative anatomy, Wistar began collecting dried, wax-injected, and preserved human specimens. Two years before his death in 1818, he gave the collection to William Edmonds Horner, another physician. Horner expanded the collection, which became known as the Wistar and Horner Museum, and was further expanded by its next curator, Joseph Leidy, M.D., who added animal specimens and fossil and anthropological samples. By the late 1880s, the collection was beginning to show signs of neglect and wear, compounded by a fire in Logan Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, where the museum was housed.
...
Wikipedia