Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine at Windber (CSSIMMW) received two donations totaling $10,000 from 1st Summit Bank for the Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program at CSSIMMW. This allows businesses to earn a tax credit while increasing educational opportunities through CSSIMMW for youth in our community.
The EITC program allows local AP Biology students to visit CSSIMMW three to four times throughout the year to obtain hands-on experience doing experiments in the laboratory. The EITC funds are used to purchase laboratory supplies and equipment that are used during these visits. In addition, the funds are also used to purchase supplies for elementary school student field trips to CSSIMMW, during which they tour the lab, isolate strawberry DNA, make candy models of DNA, and take part in other science-based activities.
Pictured, Kathy DePra, Assistant Vice President & Senior Loan Officer from 1st Summit Bank presents a $7,000 check to President/CEO Tom Kurtz. An additional $3,000 was donated at a later date.
The Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine at Windber (CSSIMMW) is a private, non-profit biomedical research institute established in 2000 as the Windber Research Institute, with two distinct but complementary programs: Translational Research and Health Promotion/Disease Prevention. The research programs include breast cancer research and cardiovascular disease research. State-of-the-art laboratories in Genomics and Cell Biology are supported by a robust Biorepository and a Biomedical Informatics Program. The Biorepository manages the collection, processing, storage and distribution of all biospecimens for research. The Biomedical Informatics Program provides data analysis and manages a data warehouse that stores patient clinical and demographic data which is integrated with research data. Translational Research at WRI has strong clinical input from our partners at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. For more information visit www.wriwindber.org.