Genomics

The University at Albany opened a $9.4 million biomedical laboratory in June of 2013. Accommodating 60 researchers, the collaborative 15,000-sf facility provides five 1,000-sf labs, advanced imaging equipment, and glass-walled offices for the RNA Institute. The project was built by AOW Associates with fully mobile lab benches for ease of reconfiguration. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility, which features a heat recovery system, sophisticated building controls, and abundant natural light.

The Clara Christie Centre for Mouse Genomics at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, provides a centralized 33,000-sf facility for the production and breeding of transgenic mice, primarily serving researchers in western Canada. The center's design and operations address the needs not only of the research community, but also its animals, researchers, and staff, resulting in lower employee turnover, injuries, and sick days.

Recent high-profile natural disasters and human-based incidents are driving vivarium facility owners to reevaluate their disaster and contingency plans. Traditional approaches to risk assessment and research preservation are often over-simplified, understaffed, and insufficiently funded. A new shift in thinking focuses on preparing for the net results of losing utilities, an entire building, or access to a section of campus rather than the initial causes.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has renovated 4,000 sf of research space to consolidate its aquaculture facilities in the Eugene Braunwald Research Center, where the environmental temperature, humidity, and lighting are regulated to sustain a successful zebrafish colony. Fixed equipment includes 96 racks capable of sustaining up to 6,600 tanks; two dedicated reverse osmosis water supply systems; and new pump and filtration systems on multiple independent circuits, with separate large-scale breeding chambers and an isolated quarantine area.

Tufts University Medford will renovate 19,627 nsf of existing wet lab space to house the Collaborative Cluster in Genome Structure and Developmental Patterning. Accommodating 70 scientists, the sustainably designed research facility will be contiguous with the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. The project is supported by $9.4 million in federal stimulus funding.

The Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory will construct the Center for Marine Functional Genomic Studies in Salisbury Cove, Maine. The 13,267-sf facility will house multidisciplinary research labs, core facilities, and support space. The building will also provide research space for Maine's IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). The project is supported by $3.8 million in federal stimulus funding.

The University of Guelph is planning to construct the $18 million Centre for Biodiversity Genomics in Guelph, Ontario. Designed by HOK, the facility will house laboratory space for genome sequencing and bar coding. The two-story building will serve as the headquarters for the International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL).

The University of Connecticut will open the 117,000-sf Cell and Genomic Science Building in Farmington in July of 2010. The renovated building will accommodate research in stem cell biology, genetics, computational biology, and advanced microscopy and imaging. The $52 million project features open laboratories to support collaborative interdisciplinary research as well as offices, a 100-seat auditorium, and business incubator space. The project was designed by Goody Clancy. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will begin construction in fall of 2010 on an expansion of its genomics data center. Doubling the size of the existing 16,000-sf facility, the completed 32,000-sf building will house advanced sequencing and bioinformatics technologies. The project is supported by $14.3 million in stimulus funding from the National Center for Research Resources.

The University of Utah is planning to renovate the George Thomas Building in Salt Lake City to house the Center for Cell and Genome Science. Construction will begin on the $75 million project in 2012. The completed facility will be named the Gary L. and Ann S. Crocker Science Center and will provide classrooms, laboratories, and administrative offices for the College of Science.

Rutgers University is building the $47 million Center for Integrative Proteomics Technologies on its Busch campus in Piscataway, N.J. Construction began on the 70,000-sf facility in November of 2009 with completion expected in October of 2011. The four-story protein research facility will bring together the BioMaPS Institute for Quantitative Biology, the Protein Data Bank, and branches of the National Institutes of Health’s Protein Structure Initiative structural genomics project.

The University of California Riverside celebrated the opening of the Stem Cell Core Facility (SCCF) in February of 2010. Located in Noel Keen Hall, the 2,000-sf facility features a Nikon BioStation CT incubator and advanced microscopy instrumentation. The project was funded by $2.8 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Oregon Health & Science University will begin construction in February of 2010 on the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Located in the Florida Center for Innovation research park in Tradition, the 98,000-sf laboratory is slated for completion in fall of 2011. The general contractor for the four-story building is Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. of Tampa.

Concordia University is planning to construct the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics (CSFG) in Montreal, Quebec. Supported by $30 million in federal and provincial funding through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, the facility will be constructed as a 5,400-sm wing attached to the existing Richard J. Renaud Science Complex on the Loyola Campus. The Genomics Centre will house interdisciplinary laboratories for the study of genomics, systems biology, biotechnology, and bioinformatics.

Genzyme Corp. initiated construction in September of 2009 on a $100 million R&D Center in Beijing. The 200,000-sf facility will accommodate 350 employees engaged in biologics and gene therapy research. Completion is expected in 2011.