IU School of Medicine gets $8.5 million grant to update Riley Hospital for Children

The IU School of Medicine has received a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health for nearly $8.5 million. This will allow a floor of the Riley Hospital for Children, the hospital that benefits from IU Dance Marathon, to become a state-of-the-art facility for pediatric clinical research.

The grant, totaling $1 billion, aims to revamp scientific research laboratories and other related facilities across the nation. The grant administered to the IU School of Medicine is just one of 146 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act construction awards.

The renovation will provide a space for faculty, all of whom are from the IU School of Medicine, to do research specifically dealing with children and to improve care not just for Riley patients, but for children around the world, said Dr. D. Craig Brater, dean of the IU School of Medicine.

Brater said most medical studies are completed with adults, not children.

“Children metabolize drugs differently,” Brater said.

If it were not for this renovation, “the research could not be done,” Brater said. “We would have no space to do it.”

The patients at Riley Hospital will be able to participate in the research, there will be greater access to children for the studies and there will be more space for various types of research, said Scott Denne, associate chair for clinical research in the Department of Pediatrics.
 
— Alyssa Goldman