A baseball field on The 78, a 62-acre South Loop site where the Chicago White Sox also want to build a new stadium, Sep. 6, 2024. The headquarters for Cannabis Research Institute’s parent organization, the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partners Institute, is proposed for vacant land on The 78. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) Nearly a year and a half after it was announced, the Cannabis Research Institute is getting operations underway in Chicago, with the goal of studying, among other things, how marijuana could help or harm people.
The institute’s leader hopes to break new ground in finding medical uses for cannabis, possibly for the treatment of cancer. Researchers also can help with the creation of a new state reference lab to check for accuracy in the testing of commercial pot. And they could track down a virus that threatens to ruin crops.
The research group is making use of a new lab in a former COVID-19 testing facility in the Illinois Medical Center campus on the West Side, harnessing DNA sequencing equipment formerly used to test for COVID-19.
But at least for now, the institute’s lab will not be in its planned new office. The headquarters for its parent organization, the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partners Institute , is proposed for vacant land on The 78, the 62-acre South Loop site where the Chicago White Sox also want to build a new stadium.
Construction on the headquarters was expected this year and should start soon, officials said, but likely may not be completed until 2027. Meanwhile, state leaders have been unwilling to give the Sox money for the stadium — despite the developer of The 78, Related Midwest, installing a new sodded baseball field on the site to spur interest in the White Sox plan.
For now the director of the Cannabis Research Institute, Reggie Gaudino, is proceeding elsewhere. He’s using a three-year, $7 million grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services to get started and applying for research grants from other governmental and nonprofit organizations.
“It is quite possible there will be some types of cannabis that can address any […]
Cannabis Research Institute opens in Chicago, looking to dig deep into marijuana
