Coriell Institute Appoints New President.

Dr. Michael Christman, Genetics and Genomics Expert, to Assume Position June 1

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Peter Driscoll, Chairman, Board of Trustees of Coriell Institute for Medical Research, announced today the appointment of Michael F. Christman, Ph.D. as president and chief executive officer, effective June 1, 2007. In this position, Dr. Christman will develop and supervise the scientific and management operations at Coriell, in support of its mission and lead a new initiative to identify human genetic variation that contributes to diseases such as cancer, heart disease and obesity.

An expert in genetics and genomics, Christman most recently served as professor and founding chair, Department of Genetics and Genomics for Boston University School of Medicine. In this position, he recruited the majority of primary faculty in the genetics and genomics department and led an international team of scientists that performed one of the first genome-wide scans to associate human genetic variation with disease. Christman has also served as associate professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Virginia; assistant professor, University of California at San Francisco, Dept. of Radiation Oncology; and was a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T.

"This is an exciting time for Coriell as our exhaustive search for the best possible candidate who can build upon our solid worldwide reputation and take us to a new, higher level of discovery has culminated with the appointment of Dr. Christman," said Driscoll. "Dr. Christman's scientific experience in leading and supervising human genome-related research, combined with his operations and management experience and vision will take Coriell to the next level in scientific research initiatives and beyond."

"I am very excited to lead Coriell Institute to an even greater level of prominence," said Christman. "I look forward to working in partnership with the board of trustees and the scientific community to help Coriell contribute more directly to advances in medical research and gain even greater status as one of the world's most important research institutes," he said.

Christman received his bachelor's degree in chemistry with honors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley; and was selected for the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Among Christman's recent research accomplishments are: serving as principal investigator on first dense genome scan for human genetic variants that predispose to disease "Netwatch - Best of the Web in science" (2006); identification of the first common obesity-predisposing human genetic variant (Herbert et al. Science) (2006); and initiation of the first genome scan for disease genes of an African American Cohort - the Howard University Family Study in Collaboration with Dr. Charles Rotimi (in progress).

Christman holds professional memberships with the Genetics Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the NIH Drug Discovery and Experimental Pharmacology (DMP) Study Section. A frequent lecturer, Christman most recently provided remarks to the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and a Johns Hopkins sponsored event at the National Press Club.

The Coriell Institute for Medical Research is an internationally known, not-for-profit, basic biomedical research institution. Founded in 1953 by Lewis L. Coriell, M.D., Ph.D., the Institute pioneered many cell culture techniques, which are now standard throughout the world. In addition to conducting its own research in cancer, human genetic variation, mechanisms of cellular differentiation, and other genetic disorders, the Institute maintains the world's largest collection of human cells available to the entire scientific community for research. Visit http://coriell.org for more information.