Animal Research

The University of Saskatchewan is planning to begin construction on its Academic Health Sciences Centre in Saskatoon by July of 2007. Estimated to cost between $140 million and $160 million, the facility is expected to be comprised of two buildings. The first would be attached to the existing Health Sciences structure and would house BSL-2 laboratory space and an animal research facility. The second building would house a 500-seat lecture hall, meeting rooms, a new school of public health, and a relocated health sciences library.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Bridge Pharmaceuticals is opening a 100,000-sf research facility in the Zhong-guancun Life Science Park in Beijing, China. The facility is designed to meet U.S. regulatory standards for animal testing and laboratory practice. Additionally, the contract research company is planning to acquire a preclinical testing facility in Taiwan.

The Tulane National Primate Research Center has received two grants of $4 million each from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health for new construction and expansion of its current breeding facility in Covington, La. The first grant will fund construction of a facility that will house monkeys assigned to a variety of research studies and nursery facilities for infant monkeys.

The Montreal Heart Institute is initiating a $24-million project to expand and renovate its Research Centre in Montreal, Canada. Slated for completion in 2008, the project will expand the south block, known as the Pavillon Jean-Louis Levesque, by 6,125 square meters on three floors. A catheterization and research space will be built, and the first three floors of the south block will be reorganized.

Franklin & Marshall College celebrated the groundbreaking of the $45-million Ann & Richard Barshinger Life Sciences & Philosophy Building in October 2005.

Ohio University is planning four new capital projects on its Athens campus:

Construction of two new laboratories and a central energy plant upgrade for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is nearing completion on its Quisset Campus in Woods Hole, Mass. One laboratory, the 32,000-sf marine research facility, was constructed primarily for researchers to study marine mammals and their environment. The second new building is a 35,000-sf biogeochemistry laboratory to study organic materials in the marine environment. The two laboratories increase the Institution's scientific research space by more than 20 percent.

Baylor College of Medicine celebrated the groundbreaking of the Margaret M. Alkek Building for Biomedical Research in Houston on Sept. 16, 2005. The 203,000-gsf, eight-story facility will feature flexible lab and office space designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in areas including cardiovascular sciences, diabetes, cancer, pharmacogenomics, imaging, informatics, and proteomics. Completion is expected in May 2007.

Seoul National University began construction in August 2005 on the $25-billion won Hwang Woo-suk Research Center in Kwanak, Korea. The state-of-the-art medical bioengineering laboratory will accommodate research in primate studies, molecular biology, cell transplants, animal cloning, and stem cell research. Completion is expected in October 2006.

The University of Alaska (UAF) is constructing the $19-million Biological Research and Diagnostics Facility on its Fairbanks campus. Slated for completion in July 2006, the 42,000-sf facility will accommodate space for small animal research, necropsy, a diagnostics laboratory, and an incinerator. UAF received a $3.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in late 2005 to enable the project to reach completion.

Vanderbilt University initiated construction in August 2005 on the Institute of Imaging Sciences (VUIIS) in Nashville, Tenn. Slated for completion in summer of 2006, the $26.7-million project will house a new $7-million, 7-tesla magnet on the ground floor that will be shielded with 400 metric tons of steel. The magnet will be installed in December 2005 and will be used in medical research for near-term identification of therapies and disease cures.

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston broke ground in April 2005 on a new 208,500-sf research facility. The six-story, $78-million project will house four floors of research programs in neurobiology, the molecular biology of human pathogens, structural biology, and physiological genomics/systems biology. The top two floors of the facility will house a new animal care center to replace the one destroyed by Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

The National Institutes of Health has selected Gilbane as construction manager for a proposed Integrated Research Facility (IRF) at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Located on approximately six acres, the facility is intended to support research at BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4. The proposed IRF may provide as much as 150,000 gsf of floor space, housing laboratory space for animal research, radiology equipment, mechanical space, and a waste-handling area.

The University of Georgia has selected Gilbane as the design-builder for the renovation and modernization of its College of Veterinary Medicine's 73,000-sf Animal Health Research Center, a BSL-3 Ag facility in Athens, Ga. The $35-million project includes reconstruction of laboratories, large animal suites, and support spaces to meet current codes; and upgrades to the existing building layout, security, systems, and functions.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) will initiate construction in March 2005 on the 161,757-sf Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building. The $128.6-million facility will be the fourth major research building at the 43-acre Mission Bay campus. More than doubling UCSF’s cancer research space, the five-story structure will accommodate 46 principal cancer researchers. Occupancy is slated for December 2007. An 18,500-sf vivarium will house approximately 16,000 cages for lab research animals, including 12,020 rodent cages.