Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

This article is about the U.S. Army medical research institute (not the hospital). Otherwise, see Walter Reed (disambiguation).

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense. The institute is centered at the Forest Glen Annex of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), part of the unincorporated Silver Spring urban area in Maryland just north of Washington, DC, but it is a subordinate unit of the U. S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), headquartered at Fort Detrick, MD, USA. At Forest Glen, the WRAIR has shared a large, modern laboratory and administrative facility, the Sen Daniel K. Inouye Building, also known as Building 503, with the Naval Medical Research Center since 1999.

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Institute Mandate

Basic and applied medical research supporting U.S. military operations is the focus of WRAIR leaders and scientists. The institute fosters a unique understanding of military medical needs and environments, including the exposures (diseases and physical stresses) that troops encounter and the performance requirements of a deployed military force. Despite the focus on the military, however, the institute has historically also incidentally addressed and solved a variety of non-military medical problems prevalent in the United States and the wider world. It is particularly well known for advances in the field of tropical and infectious disease medicine.

WRAIR Mission

Conduct biomedical research that is responsive to Department of Defense and U.S. Army requirements and delivers life saving products including knowledge, technology, and medical materiel that sustain the combat effectiveness of the warfighter.

WRAIR Vision

Be the premier Department of Defense biomedical research organization, constantly relevant, integrating basic research and advanced technology that protects, projects, and sustains the warfighter today, invents global medical solutions for the future, and keeps the warfighter on point for the Nation.

Divisions and Subordinate Units of the WRAIR

Divisions at the Daniel K. Inouye Building

WRAIR Pilot Lot Production Facility

Detachments elsewhere in the United States

The WRAIR commands specialized detachments in Texas and Illinois

Special Foreign Activities

The WRAIR commands laboratory and clinical facilities in Asia, Africa, and Europe

• Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), Bangkok, Thailand
• United States Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya (USAMRU-K), Nairobi, Kenya

History of the WRAIR

For the pre-1954 history of WRAIR's predecessor institutions, see Army Medical School.

The WRAIR traces its institutional heritage back to the Army Medical School, founded by U.S. Army Surgeon General George Sternberg in 1893, by some reckonings the first school of public health and preventive medicine in the world.

After a series of name changes, the organization became the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 1953.

See also

• Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), sister agency of WRAIR at Forest Glen
• Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), garrison/installation command for WRAIR
• U. S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), WRAIR's higher command headquarters

This article contains information that originally came from US Government publications and websites and is in the public domain.