Industry News

The Department of Health occupied its 5,285-sf BSL-3 laboratory in Washington, D.C., on May 29, 2008. Planning for the $9.6 million project began in 1999. The facility will support rapid identification of emerging disease agents and potential biological threats with the capacity to perform up to 30,000 tests per year.

University of Tennessee Medical Center broke ground in July of 2008 on a $26 million heart hospital in Knoxville. Slated for completion in 2010, the four-story facility will house inpatient care including a 24-bed cardiovascular ICU for the Heart Lung Vascular Institute.

The University of California, Los Angeles is planning to construct the $41.8 million Broad Stem Cell Research Center. The 34,587-sf project was awarded $19.8 million in funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in May of 2008.

Bridge Laboratories will initiate construction by year-end 2008 on a 150,000-sf preclinical laboratory and vivarium facility in Beijing, China. Sited in the Zhongguancun Life Science Park adjacent to Bridge’s existing facility, the animal research facility will house Good Laboratory Practice immunology, toxicology, vaccine, and bioanalytical operations. Completion is expected by the fourth quarter of 2009. Housing one of the largest animal vivariums in China, the project will meet international and FDA laboratory standards.

Advanced Thin Films will relocate operations from Longmont, Colo., to a 35,000-sf facility in Boulder in late summer of 2008. A $1.25 million renovation of the facility will include construction of a cleanroom. The sustainably designed facility will incorporate energy efficient building systems. Advanced Thin Films provides custom optical lenses and thin film technologies to the aerospace, research, and medical industries.