For Immediate Release October 31, 2005

For More Information Contact: Eric Schoch, 317-274-7722 eschoch@iupui.edu

Groundbreaking Marks Giant Step toward School of Medicine's Research Goals

INDIANAPOLIS - It could be described as a great wall of science.

When Indiana University leaders break ground at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, for the Research III building at the IU School of Medicine, they will be officially starting construction of the school's latest research building - and so much more.

At 254,000 square feet, Research III will be the fourth, and the largest, research facility built since 2000 by the medical school as it pursues its goal of doubling the size of its research enterprise by early next decade. Moreover, when finished in 2008 the new structure will complete the transformation of the north side of Walnut Street on the Indiana University Medical Center campus into a three-building, 500,000-square-foot interconnected research complex, housing scientists and physicians focusing on the biology and chemistry of cancer, neurological diseases, immunological challenges, genetic disorders and blood-related diseases.

The groundbreaking for the $83.3 million facility will be in the Morris Mills Atrium of the Van Nuys Medical Science Building. Remarks by IU President Adam Herbert, Ph.D.; IUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz, Ph.D., IU School of Medicine Dean D. Craig Brater, M.D.; George Sledge, M.D., Ballve Lantero Professor of Oncology, and M.D./Ph.D. student Juan A. Jimenez will set the stage for the beginning of the project.

Research III will include as many as 118 laboratories, a 210-seat auditorium and a symposium center that can be used as two independent lecture rooms or to supplement the auditorium.

The elevated Clarian People Mover will connect to the second floor of the seven-level structure, drawing visitors to its two-story gathering space that includes the auditorium, the symposium rooms and a coffee shop. The exterior brick walls of the Research II building to the east and the IU Cancer Research Institute to the west will become the internal walls of Research III. Double doors will link the three buildings, creating an integrated research facility where scientists can interact to share their work and vision.

The primary focus of the scientists in Research III will be solving the puzzles of cancer and developing treatments specific to its various forms. Many will be engaged in translational research - turning the discoveries of basic science into treatments delivered at the bedside. Significant clinical efforts already underway in breast, prostate and ovarian cancer, as well as genetic and blood-related disorders, will benefit from the laboratory science support of this new facility.

Other specialized cancer research initiatives moving into the new building will include experimental and developmental therapeutics, the tumor microenvironment program and hematopoiesis and immunology.

Research III also will be home to the Center for Immunobiology, an interdisciplinary group of faculty that studies organ transplant immunology, autoimmunity, innate and acquired immunity and the immunobiology of cancer. Scientists affiliated with the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute also will work in Research III.

Research III will house repositories that bank the vast array of human cells, tissues and DNA needed for research in cancer and many other human disorders, as well as the NIH-sponsored National Gene Vector Laboratory program, which provides services to scientists who conduct gene therapy trials.

Funding sources for constructing and equipping Research III include $33 million in "fee replacement" bonding approved by the Indiana General Assembly in 2003, $25 million in academic research facility bonds, $10 million from the Riley Children's Foundation, $9 million from the Indiana Genomics Initiative, $3.7 million from a National Institutes of Health grant and $2.6 million from the IU School of Medicine.

BSA LifeStructures is the primary architect of Research III, and A2SO4 Architecture designed the interior public spaces. ###