Industry News

The University of Oklahoma Health Center is under construction in Oklahoma City. Five projects totaling $534 million are under way on the 325-acre campus. New construction includes the OU Children’s Physician Building and the Cancer Institute. Additions are being built to the existing Oklahoma Blood Institute, the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute, and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation facilities.

Yongye International, a maker of plant and animal nutrient products, has completed an expansion of its R&D center in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. The project included construction of six greenhouses totaling 6,000-sm and creation of an open testing field. The expansion will support development of crop nutrients based on fulvic acid.

The University of California, Los Angeles is building the 175,000-sf Life Sciences Building on its Westwood campus. Replacing the existing life sciences facility, the $155 million building will house the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology; the Department of Physiological Science; and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Comprised of two separate five-story wings connected by a basement, the facility will provide wet and dry research labs, a plant growth lab, and vivarium space. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility.

Marshall University is planning to construct the $50 million Applied Science Center in Huntington, W.V. The 140,000-sf facility will house the College of Information Technology and Engineering, the departments of mathematics and computational sciences, a modeling and digital imaging resource facility, and engineering and bioengineering research labs. Occupancy is expected in 2012.

The international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released three new reports on the safety of engineered nanomaterials.