Nephrology Moves into Its New Digs

Back at work in the new lab space in the McDonnell Medical Science Building

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 8th floor of the McDonnell Medical Science Building.

The 7th 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 7th 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 8th and 9th 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.”

New bench space before the move

After the move

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 8th floor of Wohl Clinic, and which moved to space on the 7th 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.”

Dr. Sanjay Jain, Director of the Kidney Translational Research Center

“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 8th 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.

Follow our division and researchers on Twitter:

WU in STL Nephrology: @WUNephrology

Benjamin Humphreys, Chief, Division of Nephrology: @HumphreysLab

Jeff Miner, Professor of Medicine:  @JeffMinerPhD

Moe Mahjoub, Assistant Professor of Medicine: @MahjoubLab

Andreas Herrlich, Associate Professor of Medicine: @HerrlichLab

Eirini Kefalogianni, Instructor of Medicine:  @EKefalogianni

Jeannine Basta, Assistant Professor of Research:  @jmbasta

Andrew Malone, Assistant Professor of Medicine: @AndrewFMalone

Haojia Wu, Instructor of Medicine:  @HaojiaWu

Hani Suleiman,  Assistant Professor of Medicine: @HSuleimanlab