Founding. The Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) has its roots in biomedical investigations initiated in the late 1800s at The Lankenau Hospital, which at that time was called The German Hospital of Philadelphia and was located at Girard and Corinthian Avenues in the City. Using its medical connections in Germany, where so many medical and biochemical advances have occurred historically, the Hospital had many firsts in Philadelphia such as the first bacteriological and chemical laboratory and the first X-ray imaging device.

In 1917, a new Chief of Pathology, Dr. Stanley P. Reimann, consolidated burgeoning laboratory investigations in a new building to house what was called the Lankenau Hospital Research Institute (LHRI), dedicated 23 April 1925. To highlight its fundamental commitment to research, the Hospital placed in the lobby floor a large brass and marble seal with a star logo and the statement "For Humanity". This seal – which remains the symbol of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research today – is located in the lobby of the facility now located adjacent to the Hospital at its present site in suburban Philadelphia.

Early history. Dr. Reimann was intensely interested in the problem of cancer. While at that time it was known cancer cells divided uncontrollably, very little was known about the fundamental processes of cell division and how these processes went wrong in cancer. For this reason, Dr. Reimann focused his research on how cells divided. His approach followed upon histological descriptions of cancer made in the late 1800s by the father of cellular pathology, Dr. Rudolph Virchow (a German physician working at Charité Hospital in Berlin). Through microscopic examinations of cancer tissue histologies, Dr Virchow had noted important similarities between the cells present in cancer tissues and the cells present in inflamed tissues after a wound was made. Following these clues linking cancer and inflammation, which we now know to be critically important, Dr. Reimann studied wound healing to address fundamental questions about the problem of cell division in cancer. Cancer research at LHRI was very productive and became so prominent that the Board of Trustees at Lankenau Hospital later created the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) as a sister institution to the LHRI to increase funding support for cancer research.

Movement at mid-century – reorientation in work and workplace. In the late 1940s, because of overcrowding of the existing laboratory space, the LHRI and ICR moved to a new facility in Northeast Philadelphia, which later became part of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in the 1970s. The roots of the founding relationship of Lankenau and the ICR, now part of Fox Chase Cancer Center, continue to persist even today with ongoing support from the Lankenau Hospital Foundation.

Lankenau Hospital also moved in the 1950s, but to a different site in the Main Line suburb of Wynnewood west of the Philadelphia, where it is located today. At the new site, the Hospital created a new Division of Research in the Medical Science Building. Since most of the research had moved to Fox Chase, a new program was begun at the Hospital by Dr. Kaare Rodahl, the first Director of the new Division of Research.

Dr. Rodahl initiated investigations in the areas of cardiovascular disease, aging, the physiology of bed rest and cold exposure, and metabolic diseases. The Division of Research developed a reputation as a leading site for important clinical trials in cardiovascular disease and it received substantial funding from the NIH for clinical trials as well as for its basic laboratory research programs.

In 1981, the Lankenau Hospital Foundation created a unique subsidiary corporation called the Lankenau Medical Research Center (LMRC), into which the activities of the former Division of Research were moved. In 1992, a new research facility was constructed on the Hospital campus to house the LMRC, which in 1999 was renamed the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR). Starting in the mid-1980s, research at Lankenau gradually renewed its former focus on cancer, now prominent again.

Modern growth and the path forward. During the past two decades there has been a great expansion of research at Lankenau into the genetics and cell biology of cancer, cardiovascular disease, aging, and transgenic mouse models of disease. In particular, our investigators made seminal contributions in the area of chemical carcinogenesis by defining critical roles for the Ras oncogene and the growth regulatory enzyme ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) in the development of skin cancers. More recently, studies of the Bin1 suppressor gene and the immunomodulating enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) have led to development of a novel drug therapy for cancer treatment. From these foundations, LIMR has begun to focus its efforts on a new class genes that dictate cancer susceptibility – modifier genes – and that have a major impact on the progression or dormancy of early-stage cancers initiated by mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.

Today, we are expanding our studies of modifier genes to focus on how they impact susceptibility to age-associated disease generally. Our studies in aging are focusing on cellular pathways that are known to regulate tumorigenesis as well as cellular senescence and longevity. Our inherent strengths in the analysis and therapeutic applications of transgenic mouse models to work on these genes have been enhanced with the recent introduction of sophisticated non-invasive imaging systems. With the help of these technologies, we are pioneering nanotechnology-based gene therapies and new pharmacological agents to treat cancer. In a number of laboratories, basic and preclinical findings are being aggressively engineered to create new prognostic and therapeutic tools for clinical use ("translational research").

In cardiovascular disease, studies in hypertension and cardiac arrhythmia that focus on ion channel functions are being expanded by work on two genes that influence not only cancer progression but also cardiomyopathy and vascular disease. These directions illustrate how transgenic mouse studies can lead to deeper insights into disease progression and aging.

Several recent education initatives are enriching the environment for training at LIMR. Through interactions with the Heart Center, the Cancer Center, and the adjacent Annenberg Center for Medical Education at the Lankenau Hospital, LIMR is creating new mechanisms to support training in clinical research for the physicians who will introduce the medicines and therapies of tomorrow. Additionally, opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral training have been augmented by a summer intern program and graduate training programs coordinated with nearby St. Joseph’s University. The integrated environment at LIMR for basic, preclinical, translational, and clinical research activities offers a special opportunity for training in modern biomedical research.