Research & Technology

Spectrum Health Opens New Basic and Translational Research Laboratories

Provides additional Medical Mile biomedical research space

Spectrum Health has opened a new 9,000 square foot research facility in Grand Rapids.

The Spectrum Health Basic and Translational Research Laboratories, located in the Cooper’s Landing Building at 1345 Monroe Avenue, support basic research that enhances new and existing clinical efforts in the areas of brain tumors, pediatric urology and neuroblastoma, and blood and marrow transplantation.

“The facility enhances our efforts to become a truly academic institution, capable of attracting the very best physician-scientist and scientific candidates to West Michigan,” said Sandra A. Rempel, PhD, vice president of research, Spectrum Health. “As our basic research program grows, it will provide new educational opportunities to keep residents, clinical fellows and graduate students in the Grand Rapids area and potentially lead to their permanent retention.”

Spectrum Health has led the region in clinical research as West Michigan’s largest health system-based research program since launching clinical trials in the late 1970’s. More than 90 percent of Grand Rapids area clinical research studies are connected to Spectrum Health, which facilitates hundreds of research studies in clinical specialties within cardiovascular, oncology, pediatrics, neurosurgery, neurology, women’s health, emergency medicine, and many others.

The opening of the Spectrum Health Basic and Translational Research Laboratories adds a basic “wet lab” and translational “bench to bedside” component to the research continuum, complementing its proven track record in clinical trials.

Dr. Rempel was recruited in 2013 to oversee all clinical, translational and basic research at Spectrum Health. In addition to conducting her own research on brain tumors, she is also working to create and build an academic framework within the strong alliance established by Spectrum Health, Van Andel Institute and Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.

“It is the synergy between these institutions that has attracted outstanding talent and increases the intellectual capital of Grand Rapids,” Dr. Rempel said. 

Dr. Rempel directs the Molecular Neuro-Oncology Laboratory in the Cooper’s Landing facility. Her research, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focuses on the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of malignant brain tumor patients, based on the genetics of an individual patient’s tumor.

Specifically, she is investigating a potential method to block the invasion of glioma tumors by suppressing the downstream signaling of a protein called SPARC. Her work has potential clinical applications for patients of Spectrum Health’s new Brain & Spine Tumor Center, which opened in late 2013.

Additional Spectrum Health Basic and Translational Research Laboratories principal investigators, their individual laboratories, and their research interests include:

  • Kirstan K. Meldrum, MD, Pediatric Urology Research Laboratory (focus on urology, repairing damaged kidneys, pediatrics)
  • Giselle Sholler, MD, Neuroblastoma Translational Research Laboratory (focus on identifying new therapies for children with neuroblastoma, tumors of the nervous system)
  • Ahmad Samer Al-Homsi, MD, Laboratory of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (focus on new avenues to prevent graft versus disease, the most important impediment to progress of blood & marrow transplantation)

Dr. Meldrum recently was hired as Spectrum Health’s Section Chief of Pediatric Urology. The pediatric urology program at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital cares for children with urinary and reproductive tract anomalies.  These clinical efforts are complemented by the opening of the Pediatric Urology Research Laboratory.

Dr. Sholler also heads The Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC). This consortium is a group of 18 universities and children’s hospitals headquartered at the Helen Devos Children’s Hospital that offers a nationwide network of childhood cancer clinical trials. Their mission is to create a national collaborative effort of researchers, oncologists, and family advocates to bring forward new therapies for children with relapsed neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma with the goal of improving the quality of life and survival of children with these cancers.

Dr. Samer Al-Homsi’s Laboratory of Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research will support the clinical work of Spectrum Health Medical Group’s  Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Program, which focuses on transplants for patients with lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and performs both autologous and donor transplants.

The Spectrum Health Basic and Translational Research Laboratories are located in the Cooper’s Landing building at 1345 Monroe Avenue, Suite 121, in Grand Rapids.

Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system, based in West Michigan, offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of 11 hospitals including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital; 170 ambulatory and service sites; 1,050 employed physicians and advanced practice providers including members of the Spectrum Health Medical Group; and Priority Health, a 575,000-member health plan. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer with 21,000 employees. The organization provided $250 million in community benefit during its 2013 fiscal year.