Industry News

Kissimmee Animal Diagnostics Lab in Kissimmee, Fla., recently opened a new 1,650-sf biosafety level 3 laboratory. As the only animal testing facility of its kind in the state, the lab will support Florida’s homeland security programs and response to food safety threats by providing rapid screenings for diseases such as BSE in cattle populations. Funded by the state, the lab is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s pilot network of state and federal surveillance labs and is equipped with advanced diagnostic equipment.

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston has been designated by NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) as the site of the $167-million Galveston National Laboratory. The seven-story facility will accommodate infectious disease research and could generate as much as $1.1 billion in regional economic impact over the next twenty years.

Liberty Science Center is planning a comprehensive renovation, renewal, and expansion of its Jersey City, N.J., facility. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2005 with re-opening slated for early 2007. The project will allow more efficient use of existing interior spaces and the addition of a wing to be located on the northwest side of the building adjacent to the parking lot and a four-story glass atrium on the south side facing Liberty State Park and the Statue of Liberty.

Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas opened its expanded 51,000-sf surgery center in May of 2004. Featuring new surgical suites, ten new post-anesthesia recovery beds, 37 additional preoperation recovery rooms, and six preadmission testing rooms, the facility represents a 38 percent increase in day surgery capacity from 20,218 to approximately 28,000 annually. The surgery center is the final phase of a $51.8 million-expansion and renovation of Seton Medical Center which includes a larger emergency department, renovation of patient rooms, a new façade, chapel, and parking garage.

Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., will develop the Center for Bioengineering & Computational Biology with a $1.6-million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Creating new research laboratories and a bioengineering teaching laboratory, the facility will feature an online system by which participants can view results from experiments conducted in the center over the Internet.