IITRI HISTORY

about us

We are ready to answer your questions and provide guidance.

IITRI History

IITRI was founded in 1936 as the research arm of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). In 2002, the engineering arm was spun off in an employee buyout to form Alion Science, and IITRI has been entirely focused on life sciences since. IITRI operates as an independent, not-for-profit preclinical contract research organization and research institute. Current facilities include over 100,000 square feet of laboratory space in one location on the IIT campus in Chicago.

Specialty areas of expertise include preclinical safety and toxicology, inhalation toxicology, and biodefense and infectious disease studies. In addition, we have extensive experience evaluating the efficacy and preclinical safety of cancer therapeutics.

IITRI has a long history of providing preclinical safety and toxicology testing services to sponsors from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer products, and chemical industries, as well as to the US Government. We have been performing GLP safety studies since the regulations were put in place in 1979, and during this time we have performed thousands of GLP studies. We offer complete IND-enabling programs to take a drug candidate through IND filing with the FDA.

IITRI is a premier provider of inhalation toxicology services, and has been performing these studies for over 40 years. The strength of IITRI’s program is our knowledge of aerosol science and the ability to generate and characterize well-controlled test atmospheres with various complex test articles.

IITRI established the cancer research program in 1957 to evaluate the efficacy, mechanisms of action and preclinical safety of cancer therapies and chemopreventive agents. IITRI is a leader in cancer drug discovery and development with over 250 publications in the area. In addition, we are the leading preclinical contractor to the NCI for 10 years running.

For more than 40 years, IITRI has provided research and development services to support the US Government’s efforts to defend against the growing threats of bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases. Our laboratory and vivarium space is fully functional with the latest equipment to assess the efficacy of medical countermeasures, decontamination materials and biosensors against pathogenic agents of interest.

IITRI is a respected outsourcing partner for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. Our unique model of providing a highly experienced study team along with personalized service, in combination with a comprehensive preclinical testing program, well serves the needs of the drug development industry.