Biomedical

The Translational and Biomedical Research Center for the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and the Children's Research Institute (CRI) provide a technically sophisticated facility that supports a broad range of research projects and protocols. The contemporary design enables MCW to expand its research environment, recruit researchers, and secure additional grant money. In addition, the lab building elevates CRI's national leadership profile in pediatric healthcare as it recruits top talent and conducts treatment and diagnostic research.

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.

Although relatively small in size compared to more established research institutions, the University of New England (UNE) is making tremendous strides in growing its research and scholarship programs and infrastructure despite a shrinking pool of available grant funding. The private university, founded in 1978, began focusing its expansion efforts on biomedical research only within the past decade.

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.

Tradeline asked 120 individuals representing 98 research organizations to prioritize their areas of focus for 2013 and to make open-ended comments regarding those priorities. The priorities identified in this survey will be the focus of Tradeline's upcoming conference: The 2013 International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities on March 18-19, 2013, in San Diego.

The respondents’ overall priorities are:

1. Pressure and airflow control

2. Maintenance/operations requirements and processes

3. People, teams, and competency

When the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, U.K., launched a significant upgrade of aging infrastructure to improve health- and safety-related systems at its high-level containment facilities, project leaders undertook a benchmarking process to determine how much the upgrades would cost to operate and how Pirbright's organizational structure compared with similar facilities in preparing to meet long-range goals.

Imagine a state-of-the-art biomedical research facility where some of the brightest scientific minds in the world interact on a daily basis, with each other and with creative thinkers from other fields; where science is conducted not in an isolated lab but in a collaborative and fluid way, encouraging discoveries benefiting all aspects of society.

Researchers at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the United Kingdom have developed a way to safely anesthetize and transfer animals from BSL-3 and BSL-4 containment to a mobile imaging facility for CT and MRI scans without breaking the containment barrier. The process allows them to obtain the high-resolution, three-dimensional images necessary for their research without building a costly suite onsite.

The Manchester Royal Eye Hospital will be expanded and renovated to become a medical research center. Designed by Sheppard Robson, the $34.3 million, 100,000-sf project will include construction of a five-story extension as well as a complete renovation of the existing structure. Completion is expected in 2012.

Stanford University School of Medicine will begin construction in spring of 2011 on the $21 million Jill and John Freidenrich Center for Translational Research in Palo Alto, Calif. The three-story, 30,690-sf facility will house 250 cancer researchers and space for clinical trials. Occupancy is expected in August of 2012. The center was designed by WRNS Studio and will be built by Devcon Construction.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) opened the $123 million Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building in February of 2011. The translational research facility was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and is the headquarters of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Located on the university's Parnassus campus, the 74,832-gsf (46,283-asf) building houses open laboratories, offices, and support. Ground was broken on the facility in fall of 2008.

St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre is planning to build a $450,000 million biomedical science teaching facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The project will house a 3,000-sf laboratory, classrooms, and biomedical training suites. The facility will provide instruction in research techniques for molecular biology, microscopy, and cell cultures.

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) is building the $76.4 million Clinical and Translational Science Building in Rochester, N.Y. The 200,000-sf project broke ground in October of 2008 with occupancy expected in May of 2011. The interdisciplinary facility will house labs, offices, and classrooms for biomedical research and teaching. LEED sustainable design certification will be sought for the project.

The Medical Center of the Americas is in the design stage in El Paso, Texas. Created by a consortium of academic and industry partners including the University of Texas and Texas Tech, the planned 140-acre biomedical research complex will support commercialization of pharmaceutical therapies. The first phase of the project will include construction of an 80,000-sf facility on 10 acres in central El Paso. A subsequent phase of construction will deliver two additional buildings at the site.

Tulane University is initiating a renovation of its biomedical research laboratories in New Orleans. Supported by $13.5 million in federal stimulus funding, the project will create open interdisciplinary laboratories in 31,915 sf of existing space on three floors. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the project, which will include research suites, tissue culture rooms, collaboration space, and support.