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Lurie Children’s Launches Genetics and Rare Diseases Division With $11 Million Edwards Gift

Plans call for faster in-house testing, with a sharp increase in gene therapy trials over the next few years.

Overview

  • Don and Anne Edwards’ donation establishes the Edwards Family Division of Genetics and Rare Diseases at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
  • Dr. Carlos Prada leads the new division and described the investment as transformational for patients with rare conditions.
  • The hospital will expand pediatric genetics training to build the state’s largest program, addressing an Illinois shortage of roughly one geneticist per million residents.
  • More diagnostic testing will be performed at Lurie to cut result times from more than three months to fewer than two weeks.
  • Lurie plans to roughly triple gene therapy and clinical research trials within three to five years, targeting about 75 active trials by 2030.