Researchers Settle in Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research

The Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) opened last summer and since then nearly 300 University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health researchers have settled into the sparkling new seven-floor structure. Another 150 or so are expected to make the move by the end of the year.

Scientists from the UW Carbone Cancer Center occupy the top two floors. And once construction is completed on floors three and four in the fall, additional cancer center personnel will take up residence in WIMR.

Groups from surgery and orthopedic surgery reside on the fifth floor and additional groups — one led by Colin Jefcoate, PhD, of the pharmacology department — will be moving onto the fifth floor through the end of June.

Jefcoate will transfer his staff from the Medical Sciences Center. The laboratory is involved in studying signaling mechanisms that regulate activity at nuclear receptors associated with processing cholesterol, steroid hormones, fatty acids and metabolites. The group also studies polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons implicated in cancer development.

Medical physics and imaging/radiology have comfortably settled into floor one and the basement of WIMR, physically adjoined to the hospital's radiation therapy department. The primate vivarium is also located on floor one, while the rodent vivarium, which should be occupied by August, will be housed in the basement.

The second floor of WIMR is dedicated to utilities.