GE Healthcare pledged $32.9 million over 10 years Thursday for an imaging research facility at UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

The company and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation also announced an agreement for intellectual property and licensing practices from the research. Their 11-year collaboration has already resulted in 200 inventions and more than 80 filed U.S. patents, WARF said.

The imaging facility, to be located in the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research near UW Hospital, will focus on applications of medical imaging such as personalized medicine. For example, molecular scans of cancer patients' tumors after initial doses of chemotherapy could help doctors check if the drugs selected are best for the patients.

"That can save patients a tremendous amount of challenges associated with chemotherapy," said Dr. Thomas Grist, chairman of radiology at the UW medical school.

GE Healthcare plans to invest the $32.9 million in equipment, researchers and research support. Some equipment might be installed this year, with the imaging center expected to be fully functional by early 2014.

It will be in the second tower of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, which is expected to open by the end of 2013. The $135 million, nine-story building, supported by $67 million in state funding, will also house the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and labs focusing on cardiovascular diseases, neuroscience and other areas.

The building is part of a $600 million, three-tower hub expected to eventually house some 1,700 researchers and lab workers. No date has been set for construction of the third tower to begin.

GE Healthcare's new partnership with the medical school could create up to 100 research scientist and related jobs, press materials said. The company employs about 6,500 people in Wisconsin, including about 700 at a plant on Madison's Southeast Side.

The partnership could lead to advances like a vascular MRI scanning technique already developed through the company's partnership with the university, officials said.

"The technology that we develop here will help health care around the world, as well as right here in Wisconsin," said Tom Gentile, president and chief executive officer of the company.

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GE Healthcare pledges $32.9M for imaging research facility at UW School of Medicine