New Institute Promises Stellar Medical Research, Innovation

INDIANAPOLIS - The future of medical research and all that it promises for patient care took a major step today with the ceremonial groundbreaking of the $27 million Indiana University School of Medicine Research Institute.

The Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, the Indiana Center of Excellence in Biomedical Imaging and the Walther Oncology Center are the imminent occupants of the 66,000-square-foot facility to be located on the IU Medical Center campus.

"The new laboratories will magnify our faculty's basic medical research capabilities," said IU School of Medicine Dean D.Craig Brater, M.D. "What is most significant is that quality medical education and top-notch medical care are best built on the foundation of research."

Joining Dr. Brater at the ceremony were IU President Myles Brand, IUPUI Chancellor Gerald L. Bepko, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, Paul and Carole Stark (benefactors of the neurosciences facility), members of the IU Board of Trustees and the Indiana General Assembly, Daniel F. Evans, chairman of Clarian Health Partners board of directors, and representatives from Lt. Gov. Joseph Kernan's office.

The Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, endowed by a bequest from Dr. Paul and Carole Stark, will house researchers from many disciplines, including neurology, medical and molecular genetics, anatomy, chemistry, pharmacology, psychiatry, physiology, pathology, surgery and imaging.

This isn't the only impact the Starks will have made on the IU School of Medicine; they also have endowed the Stark Chair in Pharmacology and the Stark Neurosciences Scholarship Fund.

"Neuroscience research at IU School of Medicine has been under way for more than four decades," said Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., the School's executive associate dean for research and director of the pediatric section of endocrinology and diabetology. "The Stark Center will be a collaborative effort among scientists who share the goal of understanding and treating central nervous system diseases."

The Indiana Center of Excellence in Biomedical Imaging is funded by grants from Indiana's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund and National Cancer Institute planning grant of nearly $2 million for the In-vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center. Resources and laboratories in this center include a patient imaging suite, chemistry laboratories to develop new radio-pharmaceuticals, a laboratory for image processing and analysis, and an instrumentation facility to develop new imaging technology.

Faculty from IU, Purdue and Notre Dame universities, as well as scientists from relevant medical industries also will be involved in research at the biomedical facility. The center will serve as the focal point for transferring technology to the private medical sector.

The Walther Oncology Center is a partnership program between the Walther Cancer Institute, a private, non-profit research organization and the IU School of Medicine. This center focuses on the cellular, biochemical and molecular biology of cancer. Research at Walther has led to new therapies using cord blood as the source for stem cells in treating leukemia and other blood-related diseases.

Another contributor to the success of IU School of Medicine's research efforts is Clarian Health Partners, which has pledged $10 million toward construction of the Research Institute.

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Media Contact: Joe Stuteville
317-274-7722
jstutevi@iupui.edu

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