The Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research (Wells Center), is a highly supportive environment for interactive basic science and translational research within the Department of Pediatrics, at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The Wells Center is located in Riley Hospital for Children and in the Cancer Research Institute on the IU School of Medicine campus, the second largest medical school in the U.S., providing exceptional opportunities for collaborations between basic scientists and physicians.
The Wells Center provides the intellectual and physical environment to support basic research in pediatric diseases at Riley Hospital for Children. The goals of this 65,000 square foot research facility are to increase knowledge of the causes and mechanisms of serious pediatric diseases, to develop innovative approaches to diagnosis and treatment of childhood diseases, and to provide an outstanding training environment for medical and graduate students, residents, and fellows.
Since opening in 1991, the Center has grown from 4 investigators and 3 employees to the current staff of 32 investigators and 200 staff members. Work in the Wells Center focuses on both discovery basic research and "translational" studies, which seek to rapidly move basic or bench research findings into the clinical setting. The research programs of Wells faculty are multidisciplinary and traverse traditional clinical section boundaries, and include those in blood cell development and genetic blood cell diseases, cancer biology, gene therapy, growth and metabolism, and cardiopulmonary physiology and development. Sections represented from Riley Hospital and Department of Pediatrics includes Hematology/Oncology, Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine, Cardiac Developmental Biology, Endocrinology, and Pulmonology.
Wells Center research programs have achieved national recognition. The research endeavors of the faculty have led to an outstanding record with respect to attaining peer-reviewed, external research funding, including funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Heart Association, and the Department of Defense. In 2003, the Department of Pediatrics ranked #17 nationally for NIH funding to pediatric departments.
