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Regents give green light for Healthstar

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a large construction project Friday: the final part of the multi-year Healthstar initiative, which is changing the face of west campus Medical School buildings.

The decision will allow the $133.9 million Interdisciplinary Research Complex project to progress toward construction, which may begin as soon as summer 2005, according to UW Associate Vice Chancellor Alan Fish.

Fish said a combination of state support, private gifts and federal grants fund Healthstar, which includes two other completed constructions: the new Pharmacy Building and Health Science Learning Center.

“We still have some gift funds yet to raise [for the Research Complex],” Fish said, adding UW already received $90 million of its $110 million goal. “We’re asking the state for $23 million. The rest will be private gifts and grants from the federal government.”

The completed facility will be located north of the UW Hospital, where a parking lot currently sits, Fish said.

The complex will help the UW Medical School head toward its objective of encouraging multidisciplinary programs.

Fish said researchers and those involved in patient care would be together in one complex.

“Having all [disciplines] together will really make us one of the national leaders in health sciences,” he said.

UW officials are hopeful that in addition to the multidisciplinary benefits within the complex, the facility’s location will help the Medical School improve greatly.

“This unique facility will allow UW Medical School to bring together researchers from basic and clinical sciences to pursue an agenda that fosters translation of science into real-life applications that will significantly improve health,” Paul DeLuca, Medical School vice dean, said in a release.

The complex will house major research, including cancer and animal research and an imaging center, which will track both treatment and different ways of looking inside the body for diseases, Fish said.

“It will be the next generation of MRI [Magnetic Resonance Imaging],” he added.

The first phase of the project will be a tower that will include laboratories, offices and the imaging center, according to the release.

The project, planned for completion by mid 2008, will go before the State Building Commission Nov. 17, the release stated.