The 238,371-square-foot structure, the newest and largest Indiana University research building, provides space for 118 laboratories. It is the new home to scientists in a broad range of disciplines, but the focus of much of the research is on cancer and many of the investigators are members of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.
Walther Hall connects two research buildings at its east and west ends – Research II and the Cancer Research Institute – to form a three-building, 500,000-square-foot interconnected life sciences research complex at the medical center on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.
The new building is named for the Indianapolis physician who created the Walther Cancer Foundation, which significantly contributed to research at IU, in particular through long-term funding of such initiatives as the Walther Oncology Center at the IU School of Medicine and the Mary Margaret Walther Program for Cancer Care Research at the IU School of Nursing.
Resources for the $83.3 million facility include $33 million in bonding approved by the Indiana General Assembly, $25 million in bonding to be paid by the school, $10 million from the Riley Children’s Foundation, $9 million in Indiana Genomics Initiative (INGEN) funds from the Lilly Endowment, $3.7 million from a National Institutes of Health grant and $2.6 million from the IU School of Medicine.
Since 2000, more than $190 million has been invested in five research buildings on the IU School of Medicine Indianapolis campus to keep pace with the demands of a new era of a biomedical science ushered in by the completion of the Human Genome Project. The physical construction was accompanied by the $155 million Indiana Genomics Initiative, funded by grants from the Lilly Endowment, which supported the recruitment of new scientists and other research initiatives at IU.
Speakers at the dedication ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m., will include IU President Michael A. McRobbie, Indianapolis Mayor Gregory A. Ballard, Charles R. Bantz, chancellor of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, D. Craig Brater, dean of the IU School of Medicine, David S. Wilkes, executive associate dean for research affairs at the IU School of Medicine, Distinguished Professor Lawrence H. Einhorn, and Ora H. Pescovitz, executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Michigan, formerly executive associate dean for research affairs at the IU School of Medicine.