WisBusiness: Doyle opens new UW medical research facility

By Matt Steingraber
WisPolitics Staff

Gov. Jim Doyle touted Wisconsin’s continued commitment to education, research and knowledge today at the opening of the $134 million Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research East Tower on the UW-Madison campus.

Doyle congratulated university officials for their persistent pursuit of the project, even through times when it was unclear whether ratification would be possible.

“Even when times are not so good and even when the state budget picture doesn’t look great, it is still crucial that we move forward on major investments in the state that will be here for decades and decades and decades to come,” Doyle said.

The East Tower houses the UW Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center and contains resources dedicated to different cancer research on each floor, including specific facilities for prostate cancer, breast cancer, hematologic and pediatric oncology, lung and other cancers, core laboratory resources, advanced imaging and radiation, and surgery and pharmacology research.

The second tower will provide new laboratory space for neurosciences, cardiovascular health, and regenerative and molecular medicine. The final tower will contain pre-incubator and industrial accelerator space designed to move discovery rapidly into new technologies, according to the Dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health Robert Golden.

Doyle spoke earlier in the day at elementary schools in La Crosse and Eau Claire, where he praised the expansion of 4-year-old kindergartens throughout Wisconsin as part of the state’s focus on education.

“Whether it is 15 kids sitting in a little room learning what the letters are and what the colors are or the most advanced post-Doc with multiple PhD’s doing the most incredible far-reaching research, Wisconsin can support and will support those endeavors,” said Doyle.

Prior to a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour of the facility, new UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said the completion of the tower is only the “beginning phase” of a much larger project.

“Wisconsin is helping rewrite the paradigm for all biomedical research across the country and the world, and that’s no small feat,” Martin said.