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MILWAUKEE (1/16/2007) - Today Children's Research Institute and the Medical College of Wisconsin dedicated a new, $140 million biomedical and translational research facility. The research center, a collaborative project of the two organizations, is located on Watertown Plank Road in Wauwatosa, just north of the Medical College and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Research institute and college officials presided over the dedication ceremony that featured comments by Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.
The new 298,000 square foot facility provides shared research space and two wings of laboratories, one for Children's Research Institute and the other for the Medical College's Translational and Biomedical Research Center.
T. Michael Bolger, president and CEO of the Medical College, said, "Research conducted in this new facility will strengthen the Medical College's commitment to translational research; the acceleration of basic science or 'bench laboratory' research into new clinical applications benefiting patients."
According to Jon E. Vice, president and CEO of Children's Hospital and Health System, the new research facility represents a significant stride forward for pediatric research in Wisconsin.
"Children's Research Institute is the only research center in the state dedicated solely to issues of children's health," he said. "Our research programs are growing quickly and yielding new treatments and diagnostics for patients at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. You can see how projects move in a relatively short period of time from the research laboratories to the bedside. It's translational research at it's best."
The Medical College provided $61 million in funding support for the project and Children's Hospital and Health System provided $45 million. The State of Wisconsin granted $35 million for the project as an investment in biotechnology in the Milwaukee area. Under the leadership of U.S. Representative F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls) and U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), almost $5 million in federal appropriations were also awarded for the project.
Seven key Children's Research Institute programs will be expanded in the new building. They include molecular critical care, developmental vascular biology, vascular biology/pediatric surgery, Children's Kidney Disease Research Program, the Individualized Medicine Institute, pathology/vascular anomalies, and clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenetics and teratology.
Major programs to be housed in the Medical College's Translational and Biomedical Research Center include the College's Cancer Center, Biotechnology and Bioengineering Center, the Center for Biopreparedness and Infectious Diseases, and its program in Structural Biology.
Children's Research Institute
Founded in 2004, Children's Research Institute provides infrastructure and support for pediatric basic science research and clinical research at Children's Hospital. Since 2001, the number of active clinical studies performed by research institute investigators has increased by more than 60 percent. Similarly, National Institutes of Health-funded investigations at the research institute increased 45 percent from 2004 to 2005 alone.
Several pediatric research programs move to the new facility in the coming weeks:
Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacogenetics and Teratology/Pharmacogenetics Core – This research focuses on how children respond to drugs and environmental toxins based on both age and genetic differences. This research has implications for understanding and preventing problems such as cardiac and neurological birth defects and adverse drug reactions.
Molecular Critical Care – Many children treated in Children's Hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit have common illnesses such as pneumonia and asthma. This research aims to understand which children are more likely to become critically ill. It also could yield new treatments to prevent the progression of the illness to a critical level.
Developmental Vascular Biology – This research focuses on how blood vessels are formed. New understanding in this area could generate new treatments for diseases caused by or supported by unregulated vessel growth such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, age-related macular regeneration, psoriasis and diabetic retinopathy.
Pathology/Vascular Anomalies – Hemangioma of infancy, a benign tumor of blood vessels, is the most common birthmark, occurring in up to 10 percent of babies. For most children these tumors are not problematic, but doctors have documented that many of these children have additional abnormalities of the brain, blood vessels, eyes and heart. Research in this area aims to determine if the presence of hemangiomas can signal the presence of more serious birth defects, leading to earlier diagnosis and treatment for these problems.
Individualized Medicine Institute – Individualized medicine uses the newest tools of genetic research to understand the underlying basis for diseases. Researchers in this program work to identify and analyze genes and DNA sequences to understand, predict and ultimately prevent the development of illnesses including pediatric inflammatory bowel disease, congenital heart defects, asthma and vascular anomalies.
Developmental Genetics – Scientists in this program seek to identify genes that interfere with human development and cause defects in portions of the eye, craniofacial region, brain, heart and umbilical area.
Children's Kidney Disease Research Program – Physician-scientists work to apply advances in genomic and cellular biology to identify innovative new therapies for acute and chronic kidney disease. As most adult kidney diseases begin in childhood, the pediatric focus is key to stemming the epidemic of kidney disease in adults.
Vascular Biology/Pediatric Surgery – This research group investigates vascular function and its response to injury, inflammation and disease. This research could result in new ways to diagnose and treat heart disease, cancer, scleroderma, asthma and acute lung injury.
The Medical College's Translational and Biomedical Research Center
As Wisconsin's largest private research institution, Medical College of Wisconsin faculty members will conduct approximately $125 million in externally funded research this year on more than 3,000 research protocols. The Medical College is ranked 46th among the nation's 125 medical schools for research grants and contract funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Four major College research initiatives will be conducted in the Translational and Biomedical Research Center:
Cancer Center - With more than 200 faculty physicians and scientists, the Medical College Cancer Center is dedicated to providing comprehensive cancer care, education, research and service. The Medical College is recruiting additional faculty members whose laboratories will be housed in the Translational and Biomedical Research Center.
Biotechnology and Biomedical Research Center – This multidisciplinary research center is dedicated to the development and application of novel technology in biomedical research through proteomics (the study of proteins' structure and function), genomics (the study of an organism's entire gene structure), computational biology, molecular imaging, cell and tissue engineering, drug discovery and technology development. Research to be conducted in the Center's new facilities will have implications for cardiovascular disease and stroke, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, tropical infectious diseases and the increased risk of leukemia in individuals with Down syndrome.
Center for Biopreparedness and Infectious Diseases – Established in 2003, this multidisciplinary center is focused on the development of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines to combat the emergence of exotic imported infectious diseases and the threat of biological agents used as tools of terrorism. Research to be conducted in the new facility will focus on two serious infectious diseases. Studies will be conducted to neutralize the toxic effects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that can affect lung function in patients with other serious health problems (i.e., cystic fibrosis, HIV). Work will also be done to develop a vaccine or therapeutic treatment for tularemia, an infectious disease that has been used as a biological weapon.
Structural Biology – Medical College researchers in these laboratories will study the architecture, shape, structure and mechanisms of proteins and nucleic acids. Through their research, scientists hope to gain better understanding of the causes and prevention of common cancers (leukemia, colorectal, pancreatic), and inherited metabolic disorders and diseases of the immune system.
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