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McDonnell Pediatric Research Building

	The McDonnell Pediatric Research Building is a focal point for research into the biology of childhood diseases.

The McDonnell Pediatric Research Building (MPRB) was dedicated on September 13, 2000. The $83 million facility is a collaborative effort between Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital. This 11-story facility with 227,000 square feet of space provides six floors of pediatric research laboratories for new programs and the expansion of existing ones. Common core facilities support more than 200 physician-scientists and trainees. The McDonnell Pediatric Research Building is a focal point for state-of-the-art investigations into the biology of childhood diseases and serves to stimulate the application of basic science and technology discoveries to the clinical care of children.

Designed by Ralph Johnson at Perkins & Will, Chicago, in association with Mackey Mitchell, St. Louis, the building is a modified triangle with a north face of brick, an east face of Indiana limestone and a curved south face of glass. The modified triangle represents the triad of the school's mission: education, research and patient care.

The Department of Pediatrics has received a five-year renewal of its designation as a Child Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health. This Center, supported by a $2 million grant, is using models developed at the Center to study pathology of diseases, as well as to evaluate new treatments that eventually will benefit children.

The McDonnell Pediatric Research Building joins the Clinical Sciences Research Building at the North Tower, which opened in 1997 as a $42-million barrier rodent facility that houses the pediatrics department's core laboratory for transgenic and knockout mice. The School of Medicine's Department of Molecular Microbiology is also located in the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building. The first floor houses the Washington University Medical Bookstore, operated by Barnes & Noble.