A Penn neighbor will soon reach grand new heights.

Last month, the Wistar Institute broke ground on a major building expansion that will help the facility expand its research operations, recruit new scientific faculty and pursue collaborative biomedical research. The Institute plans to build a new, seven-story 89,700-square-foot research tower above its current location at 2601 Spruce St. Five floors will house labs designed to support team science, with flexible, open floor plans and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Wistar also has a plan to recruit up to 10 new faculty members with expertise in promising new areas of biomedical research, including genetics, vaccines and cancer research.

The $100 million project, scheduled for completion in the spring of 2014, will support 380 construction jobs and is expected to create 100 new research and administrative jobs in the future. For more information, go to www.wistar.org.