Interdisciplinary Research Complex: Building a Catalyst for Discovery

Under bright August skies (8/2006), with gold shovels flashing and white hard hats gleaming, 15 people assembled to break ground for the last element of the HealthStar vision. This official launch of the Interdisciplinary Research Complex, or IRC, marked the final phase of an ambitious collaboration between the state, the campus and private donors to create leading edge health sciences facilities on the UW campus and to bring together, in one area, health care clinicians, researchers and educators.

“With the start of construction on the IRC, we enter a new era of translational research that will greatly help the people of Wisconsin by quickly bringing new discoveries into the patient care setting.” —Philip M. Farrell, MD, PhD UW School of Medicine and Public Health

A multi-phase project, the IRC is the concluding component of the HealthStar initiative launched nearly 10 years ago. That undertaking has already led to the opening of the School of Pharmacy’s Rennebohm Hall and the Health Sciences Learning Center, the new home of UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s educational programs and administrative offices, as well shared teaching space for the students in medicine, nursing and pharmacy.

The $134 million IRC will be constructed adjacent to those two buildings, next to UW Hospital and Clinics and the newly-begun American Family Children’s Hospital, scheduled for completion in 2007. With the nearby Waisman Center and the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, the growing cluster of health sciences facilities represents one of the most dynamic biomedical enclaves in the country, according to School of Medicine and Public Health Dean, Philip M. Farrell, MD, PhD, who has spearheaded the HealthStar plan.

To be completed in early 2008, the IRC is part of the campus’ carefully conceived master plan which, according to UW Chancellor John Wiley, will reinvent the campus in the next 15 to 20 years.

The first approved phase of IRC construction will consist of a five-story tower atop a three-story base and the base of a second tower. Future plans call for completion of the second tower and a third tower to the west of tower two, all of the same height. According to School of Medicine and Public Health Vice Dean Paul DeLuca, PhD, the IRC will provide a unique environment, allowing scientists to conduct biomedical research in the most creative ways.

The building will be physically designed to encourage the gathering of groups of scientists from different disciplines to address problems of common interest. Researchers working in the building also will benefit from close proximity to clinicians at UW Hospital and Clinics, says DeLuca, who has been named the IRC program director.

“This easy access and exchange of ideas between scientists and physicians will make the building a catalyst for translational research—that which moves rapidly from bench to bedside. It will change the face of how we do research.” —Paul DeLuca, PhD UW School of Medicine and Public Health

The IRC also will be critical for research that requires a longer time frame, such as the regenerative therapies expected to result from the basic science on stem cells.

“The IRC will be the first building on campus to be specifically designed to foster interdisciplinary collaborations.” —John Wiley, Chancellor University of Wisconsin–Madison

Scientists in the IRC will concentrate on areas identified as strategically important to the health sciences, including cancer, neurosciences, and cardiovascular diseases. It will house major programs in image science, molecular medicine and regenerative medicine.

Cancer research laboratories will be the anchor of the IRC’s first tower. In 2003, the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC) received a $7 million grant to construct new UWCCC space in the IRC. The grant, composed of $4 million from the National Center for Cancer Resources (NCCR) and $3 million from the NCI, provides funding for interdisciplinary prostate cancer research.

An additional $7 million grant from the NCCR will make similar space available for interdisciplinary breast cancer research within the IRC. Building planners envision that the entire first tower ultimately will be devoted to cancer research.

Neuroscience and cardiovascular research also will be featured in phase one, as will work on stem cells and regenerative medicine.

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