The late virologist Dr. Lewis Coriell, whose groundbreaking work on the polio vaccine virtually wiped out the disease, has been nominated to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Dr. Coriell is being nominated for the Education, Research, Engineering & Science category 24 years after his death, according to an announcement by the school he founded in 1953 that bears his name, the Coriell Institute for Biomedical Research in Camden.
Dr. Coriell died on June 19, 2001, in Camden on his 90th birthday. His scientific contributions had a profound impact on the lives of patients in South Jersey and well beyond.
In 1949 Dr. Coriell became medical director of the Camden Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases. While there, he was able to show that gamma globulin, a protein found in the blood, could be used to produce temporary immunity to polio in children.
His discovery of sustaining living human cells in culture and preventing them from being contaminated enabled scientists to grow the polio virus and work on a vaccine. Dr. Coriell subsequently ran the field trials of the resulting Salk vaccine.
For his work on the vaccine, Dr. Coriell was awarded the Presidential Medal at the International Poliomyelitis Congress in 1957.
In 1953, Dr. Coriell chartered the South Jersey Medical Research Foundation Laboratory, the first nonprofit academic medical research institute in the region. After he retired in 1985, the institute was later renamed the Coriell Institute for Medical Research.
His three decades of research and innovation propelled the Coriell Institute onto the world health stage, including developing air filtration techniques to keep laboratories and operating rooms free of contamination.
In 1972, he partnered with the National Institutes of Health to establish the world’s largest collection of human cells and DNA. The depository currently assists scientists in some 80 countries in conducting groundbreaking research in biobanking and epigenetics.
“In many ways, Dr. Coriell is an unsung hero,” said Dr. Jean-Pierre Issa, current President and CEO of the Coriell Institute. “Though he may not be a household name, his many groundbreaking contributions to advancing science and improving public health laid the groundwork for modern life sciences research.”
Earlier this month, on March 15, the New Jersey Hall of Fame opened its public vote, asking people to pick their top two choices in six different categories of 10 nominees each. The public is invited to vote until April 15.
The Hall Board determines which inductees are selected in each category, and inductees are announced at the end of June. Inductees must be or have been a New Jersey resident or have worked in New Jersey for a minimum of five years.
Dr. Coriell was born on June 19, 1911, in Sciotoville, Ohio, and grew up in Montana. But his whole professional life was spent in South Jersey. He lived in Moorestown and worked in Camden.
“Our founder loved Camden and spent his entire professional career in Camden, and he believed in the region,” Issa told The Sun Papers in a recent interview.
Issa said the Hall nomination was well deserved for a man who improved the lives of so many and whose legacy lives on.
“For more than 50 years now, scientists around the world have turned to the biobanks Dr. Coriell pioneered to advance their research and make discoveries that are changing medicine – from treating rare diseases to delaying aging,” added Issa. “Dr. Coriell’s legacy lives on through the world-renowned institute that bears his name and the global research the institute supports.”
Last month, the Coriell Institute announced it was moving into a bigger yet-to-be-built building on what will eventually become a new science campus in Camden.
Groundbreaking is slated this summer on the Lewis L. Coriell Medical Research Center, which will house the new NJ Biomedical Strategic Innovation Center with state-of-the-art incubator and laboratory spaces for emerging biotech companies.
