Nephrology Moves into Its New Digs

It didn’t take long for the new laboratory space to fill up once the Division of Nephrology relocated to its new location on the 8^th floor of the McDonnell Medical Science Building.

The 7^th floor of the Wohl Clinic building had been the home for the Division of Nephrology for well over 50 years.  As Professor Emeritus Dr. Eduardo Slatopolsky says, “The division was already on the 7^th floor when I joined the faculty in 1965.  There were about five of us in the division and maybe 50 people in the whole of Internal Medicine!”  Over the years, the division expanded into the 8^th and 9^th floors of Wohl Clinic.

While the move itself only took about two weeks, planning for the move was well over a year in the making.  Jodean Baldauf, Senior Director of Business Operations & Business Development for the division, was involved in the planning and organization of the move and worked closely with division chief, Dr. Benjamin Humphreys, and the research PIs.  The valuable input from staff members from all the research labs helped in the design of functional space for their needs.

“The design of the new space is based on an open, shared model to promote collaboration between the researchers,” says Ms. Baldauf.  “This contrasts to our old space in the Wohl Clinic, which was segregated with investigators having their own labs.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The open-room concept incorporates desks at the end of each long bench for the researchers.  Shared rooms include multiple tissue culture rooms that are fed by a central CO₂ source, one large microscopy room, and animal suite, a walk-in cold room, space for liquid nitrogen cell storage, a cryostat microtome room and an equipment room.  All of the PIs have office space on the floor.  There are lockers, a coffee room with refrigerator and microwave, a lounge/lunch area and an audio/video teleconference-equipped conference room.

Also relocating to new space was the Kidney Translational Research Center (KTRC), a core research facility under the directorship of Dr. Sanjay Jain that had resided on the 8^th floor of Wohl Clinic, and which moved to space on the 7^th floor of the McDonnell Science Building.  “The KTRC has a new home with a fabulous view and a nicely organized working space to process, store and keep track of thousands of specimens for translational research,” says Dr. Jain.  “Diane (Salamon), Rusiko (Turabelidze) and Amanda (Knoten) worked tirelessly to have a fully-approved working KTRC lab and office areas within a few days after the move.”

“The lab staff and faculty worked very hard throughout the whole moving process and should be commended on how they cleared out their old space in the Wohl Clinic, immediately set up their new bench areas, and quickly adapted to their new environment,” says Baldauf.  “Everyone met the challenge to close out their Wohl Clinic labs to ready the space for the division’s new project: Faculty and Staff Office Space on the 8^th floor of Wohl Hospital and Wohl Clinic.”  The construction has already begun, with an anticipated move-in date in September 2019.

“It is such a great feeling to see a project come to fruition … our divisional space looks modern, warm and inviting,” says Baldauf.

Here’s to another 50 years of excellent nephrology research!

See the division’s Facebook page for pictures of the construction and move into the new space.