October 5, 2007
The new research building at 10 Amistad Street is home to three programs focusing on translational research, linking basic studies in animal models to potential cures.
The $88.6 million Amistad Street research building houses the Interdepartmental Program in Vascular Biology and Therapeutics, the Human and Translational Immunology Program, and the Yale Stem Cell Center.
If, as Jordan Pober says, translational medicine is a team sport, than Yale’s newest science building, at 10 Amistad St., might be seen as the Madison Square Garden of research facilities.
Pober, head of the Human and Translational Immunology Program and vice chair of Immunobiology, says the opening of the $88.6 million building is a milestone for science at the medical school. Not only does it provide much-needed lab space for several dozen investigators, but it will enable them to collaborate in ways that will produce results greater than the sum of the parts.
The building opened on October 5 with a scientific symposium at 1 p.m. and ribbon-cutting
at 4:30 p.m.
Unlike traditional biomedical research teams—often composed of members of one discipline working in a single animal model—the three research programs housed in the 120,000-square-foot building draw from multiple departments and have shifted their focus solely from rodent studies to better understanding what works—and doesn’t work—in humans.
“The challenge is not to abandon animal research,” Pober says, “but to assemble other individuals who can be a bridge between people who study disease models and clinicians who take care of patients.”
The three groups include faculty members, such as Pober, who have been at Yale for many years as well as new recruits from other institutions and nations, including Russia, China and Japan.
“This new building is truly a model for 21st century research,” said Dean Robert Alpern, “because it allows scientists with different expertise to attack problems from many angles.”
The Amistad Street building is part of the university’s $1 billion program to boost science and medicine. The four-story building and adjoining garage, constructed earlier at a cost of $24.2 million, opens on the heels of Yale’s acquisition of the 136-acre Bayer campus in West Haven and Orange on Sept. 25.
The programs in the Amistad Street building are:
Vascular biology is the study of the cells and molecules that interact in the vascular system, which supplies the organs and every cell in the body with oxygen and nutrients. According to Director William Sessa, the group’s research is clinically relevant to cardiac disease, such as the mechanisms underlying the blockage of arteries; therapeutic angiogenesis, which involves stimulating the growth of collateral blood vessels on the heart, as well creating synthetic blood vessels.
Twelve investigators in the program are housed in two floors of labs. More than 40 Yale faculty members are affiliated with the program, including researchers from internal medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, pharmacology, pathology and immunobiology.
Pober and Kevan Herold are the first two of eight core members of the program, with one senior and five junior faculty members still to be recruited. Pober says some of the group’s disease targets relate to organ transplantation, the application of immunotherapies to infectious disease or cancer, and the basis for autoimmune disorders, such as asthma, type 1 diabetes and lupus. The group will also look at other diseases, such as arteriosclerosis, which lend themselves to therapeutic interventions by means of the immune system.
Herold, who has a secondary appointment in internal medicine/endocrinology, is in the midst of clinical trials in which the immune system is manipulated to obtain a remission or reversal of type 1 diabetes. Pober is working on ways to reduce the death rate in patients who receive organ transplants. “Transplantation is an effective treatment for end organ failure. Most patients who undergo kidney transplantation and die do so because of heart failure, not because of rejection of the kidney,” he said. “We want to know why and how to prevent it.”
Led by Haifan Lin, this program is studying stem cell behavior. “The stem cell,” Lin says, “is the mother of all cells. It harbors tremendous potential for curing cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and spinal cord injury.”
With Associate Director Diane Krause, Lin is recruiting four more faculty members to conduct basic stem cell research and to investigate applications. They recently recruited Natalia Ivanona. “She has made landmark contributions to the stem cell field,” Lin said. “She has deep understanding of stem cell biology, amazing talent in developing cutting-edge technology, and keen instinct in solving big problems. The rare combination of these remarkable qualities will propel her to success as a leader in stem cell research.”
The ways in which stem cells can both renew and develop into many different cell types is only partly understood. Lin is optimistic that these mechanisms will be decoded and one day lead to medical treatments.
“Just imagine,” he says, “if we were able to grow tissues to replace damaged heart muscle or brain tissues.”
Lin’s discovery of piRNAs, a complex dimension of the genetic circuitry, was voted by Science magazine as one of the ten breakthroughs of 2006. His lab’s latest work suggests that piRNAs, which are mostly derived from so-called “junk DNA,” have crucial functions in controlling the stem cell fate and other processes of tissue development.
Yale has been one of the top beneficiaries of the State of Connecticut’s allocation of funds to stem cell research, which will total $100 million statewide over a 10-year period. The state legislature also created a safe haven in Connecticut for work on human embryonic stem (hES) cell research, which is ineligible for federal funding except for certain cell lines established before President Bush’s 2001 executive order. The stem cell center contains a core facility for culturing hES cells, enabling hES research to be conducted.
—Michael Fitzsousa
Photo by Terry Dagradi
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Yale School of Medicine
Last updated
10/15/07
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