The University of Nebraska Medical Center has received approval from the Board of Regents for a three-story, 35,000-square-foot addition that would centralize genetics research at UNMC. The addition will be built directly north of the existing Hattie B. Munroe Pavilion located at 45th and Dewey Avenue on the UNMC campus.
Construction will be funded by a $7 million gift from the Hattie B. Munroe Foundation. “Three years ago, it became obvious to campus leaders that genetics research should be developed as a strategic area of excellence,” said Bruce Buehler, M.D., director of the Meyer Rehabilitation Institute and chairman of the UNMC pediatrics department. “We already have an excellent group of people who are scattered all over campus. By centralizing their work effort, you not only create efficiencies of scale through the sharing of resources, you also create an environment in which collaborative thinking flourishes.”
“The field of molecular genetics is moving very rapidly, and basic scientists must have the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with clinical scientists and genetics counselors to validate and apply new discoveries,” said Steven Hinrichs, M.D., associate professor, pathology/microbiology. “The addition to the Hattie B. Munroe Pavilion will allow these three groups of people to work in close proximity for the benefit of all our patients at UNMC.”
The new addition will be the fifth significant UNMC project funded by the Hattie B. Munroe -over- Foundation in the past few years. Other projects were the Hattie B. Munroe Center for Human Genetics, the Habilitation Technology Center, the Augmentative Communication Center, and a three- story addition to the Hattie B. Munroe Pavilion in 1990. The combined facilities of the Hattie B. Munroe Pavilion and the Meyer Rehabilitation Institute make up one of the largest facilities in the country providing care for children and adults with physical or developmental handicaps.
Since the first Hattie B. Munroe Home was founded in 1922, the organization has been dedicated to the development and support of programs directly benefiting children with chronic disabilities and providing education and support to their families. The Meyer Rehabilitation Institute was constructed in 1958 as a memorial to C. Louis Meyer, a longtime Omaha resident and nationally-known industrialist. It began as a rehabilitation center for children suffering from such diseases as polio and cerebral palsy and became part of UNMC in 1968.
The ground floor of the new addition will provide space to expand the existing gait laboratory and Camp Munroe, a summer activity that provides recreational and educational opportunities for children with disabilities, said Barry Ward, campus architect and assistant director, facilities management and planning. The upper two floors will be mirror images of each other, Ward said. Each will house flexible, modular lab space to accommodate the necessary genetics research equipment. These floors also will contain conference rooms and office space for the researchers and their support staffs.
The building will be designed to allow for two additional floors at a later date. Funding from the UNMC Chancellor’s Office, the UNMC College of Medicine, the Meyer Rehabilitation Institute and the UNMC/Eppley Cancer Center will allow for the recruitment of a -more- nationally renowned genetics research staff to complement existing genetics personnel on campus.
A search committee has been formed to carry out the recruitment effort for the new facility. The committee, chaired by G. Bradley Schaefer, M.D., associate director at Meyer and professor of pediatrics, consists of representatives from throughout the College of Medicine. Dr. Schaefer said the group is actively working to recruit a senior investigator in molecular genetics who could serve several potential roles, including:
— Director of molecular genetics for the Hattie B. Munroe Center for Human Genetics.
— Director of a graduate program in human molecular genetics.
— Leader of molecular genetics efforts at UNMC.
— Leader of major laboratory efforts in the new genetics addition.
The genetics staff will be charged with developing new areas of expertise, Dr. Buehler said. This could include chromosome studies as well as molecular diagnostics in which gene tests for families with breast and colon cancers are offered. The program also will allow UNMC to create a first-rate doctoral and post-doctoral genetics program.
The construction project currently is in the design stage. Ward said the working drawings should be completed by the end of the year, followed by a four-week bid letting process. Groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for the spring of 1997 with completion targeted for the fall of 1998. Fran Biskup of Keeler Raynor Hinz Architects, Bellevue, is the project architect.