Industry News

The University of Kentucky broke ground on a $28.5 million expansion and renovation of the Kentucky Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center in Lexington in September of 2008. The project will include the construction of a necropsy laboratory wing and an administrative wing, nearly doubling the size of the existing 38,000-sf building, which will be completely renovated. The facility will also switch to alkaline digestion for tissue disposal. Completion is expected by 2010.

Novartis opened the 80,000-sf Research Center of Excellence in Virology in Cambridge, Mass., on Sept 13, 2008. The BSL-3 facility houses laboratory and office space for an additional 150 employees. The project will accommodate vaccine research for diseases such as influenza and HIV.

The University of Queensland opened the $33 million Centre for Advanced Animal Science (CAAS) on its Gatton campus in September of 2008. The biocontainment facility will house laboratories for disease and vaccine research, group and individual animal pens, and cattle handling facilities. The project was designed by S2F and built by McNab Constructions. CAAS is a joint venture of the University of Queensland and the Queensland Government.

Montana State University dedicated the Jutila Research Laboratory and the Johnson Family Livestock Facility in August of 2008. The $2.5 million, 3,500-sf Jutila Research Lab accommodates BSL-3 infectious disease research. The $3.4 million, 7,500-sf Johnson Family Livestock Facility will support BSL-2 large animal veterinary research.

Boston University Medical Center’s $198 million BSL-4 laboratory at BioSquare in Boston will reach completion by October of 2008. Housing the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, the seven-story, 192,000-sf facility will open in April of 2009. The project contractors are McCarthy and Turner Construction.