Mc Ardle Laboratory

Mc Ardle Laboratory

The McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research is a basic cancer research facility located on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin. It is also the Department of Oncology in the University of Wisconsin. The current staff of the McArdle Laboratory numbers approximately 200. Twenty faculty members lead research groups focused on cancer virology, signal transduction, cell cycle, cancer genetics, and carcinogenesis.

Peer-reviewed grants awarded on a competitive basis by agencies such as the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, American Cancer Society, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure provide the major source of research funds for the McArdle Laboratory. A small percentage of McArdle’s operating budget is provided by the State of Wisconsin. Private donations and bequests made directly to the McArdle Laboratory play a vital role in the support of the research carried out at the Laboratory.

Founding faculty Harold P. Rusch, Roswell Boutwell, Charles Heidelberger, Elizabeth and James Miller, Gerald C. Mueller, and Van R. Potter helped to establish the international reputation of the McArdle Laboratory and to build the strong foundation of basic cancer research on the University of Wisconsin campus. The former and current staff include recipients of the Bristol Myers Award in Cancer Research; seven members of the National Academy of Sciences; four past presidents of the American Association for Cancer Research; recipients of the American Cancer Society Research Professor and Junior Faculty Research Awards; and members of the National Cancer Advisory Board and the President’s Cancer Panel. Howard M. Temin (1934-1994) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with David Baltimore and Renato Dulbecco) in 1975 while a member of the faculty at the McArdle Laboratory.

The training of young scientists for careers in cancer research has been an important aspect of the McArdle Laboratory since its beginning. The McArdle Laboratory was the first cancer research institution in the country to grant a Ph.D. degree in Oncology. The graduate program, now called Cancer Biology, is one of the few programs in the world devoted specifically to cancer research. Over 1400 men and women have received training at the pre- and postdoctoral level at the McArdle Laboratory. Alumni hold research and teaching positions at universities, research institutes, governmental agencies, and in industry around the world. McArdle alum Günter Blobel received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999 for "the discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell".