UR heart researchers to get own building

Staff writer

Heart researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center will soon move into their own building off-campus in Henrietta.

The change is meant to give researchers more space, to offer an incentive that would help attract more clinical investigators and to bring more research dollars into the university.

The Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute will house more than 100 researchers, students and technicians who currently work in 15 laboratories across the medical center campus, between Crittenden Boulevard and Elmwood Avenue.

The workers will likely move into the new facility, which is on Bailey Road, in October.

Dr. Mark Taubman, UR's chair of medicine and director of the Aab Institute, said the university's goal is to increase heart research dollars from about $9 million to $30 million, and to become one of the top five heart research centers in the country in terms of funding and size.

UR is currently near the top 20 of heart research centers.

"People like critical mass. We have space to expand. So the more people you have, the easier it gets to recruit," Taubman said.

UR has invested $14 million into renovating and outfitting the 100,000-square-foot building. New equipment has been purchased to replace older models that had to be left with the medical center.

The institute is named in honor of Richard T. Aab, a longtime supporter of the university who also donated $5 million. He is a founder, chairman and CEO of E-chx Inc.

Joseph Miano, associate professor of medicine at the cardiovascular research institute, said the building doubles his lab space. Miano works on finding genes that might predispose people to various problems associated with heart disease.