Biomedical

Schering-Plough Corp. is consolidating biopharma research operations in Palo Alto, Calif. Subsidiary Canji Inc. will be relocated to merge with Schering-Plough's DNAX Research Institute to create an integrated company called Schering-Plough Biopharma. The 68,000-sf facility, where DNAX is located, will be fully operational by the third quarter of 2005. Schering-Plough Biopharma will focus primarily on biologics research including monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic proteins.

The recently completed $43.2-million Parnassus Services Seismic Replacement Building for the University of California, San Francisco is a six-story, 86,000-sf state-of-the-art laboratory facility built to support cancer, immunology, infectious disease, diabetes, hormone, reproductive biology, and cardiovascular research. Designed by Flad & Associates of San Francisco and constructed by McCarthy, the facility features a robotic cage wash and prep system.

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 $100 million California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research is nearing completion at the Mission Bay campus in South San Francisco. The 153,000-sf facility is the first of four buildings that will make up the institute known as QB3 and is connected to U.C. San Francisco's Genentech Hall on all five stories. The Mission Bay facility will house a magnetic resonance imaging machine, a high through-put screening facility, a 250,000-compound chemical library for drug development, and 8,000 CPUs.

Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute opened the new 8,000-sf Center for Immunobiology and Vaccine Development in Oakland, Calif., in February 2005. The $5.6 million center was designed to accelerate research into serious infectious diseases for which no vaccines are available.

Translational Genomics (TGen) will officially dedicate its new $46 million headquarters on March 22, 2005. Located in Phoenix, Ariz., the TGen headquarters is sited in a 173,000-sf building, the first in a new downtown campus called the Phoenix Bioscience Center at Cooper Square. Other tenants in the building include the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), occupying the entire 23,000-sf second floor, and the International Genomics Consortium (IGC).

The University of Louisville is developing the Gheens Foundation Biosensor Reseach Center in Louisville. Funded by a $1.5 million pledge from the Gheens Foundation, the center will conduct biosensor research to create new devices and enable existing heart devices to function more compatibly with the human body. The research center will be part of the new $27.6 million Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII), a partnership between the University of Louisville and Jewish Hospital .

Boston University Medical Center has received final approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its 410,000-sf BioSquare Phase II project in Boston. Funded by a $128 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the project will include a BSL-4 research laboratory and a 1,400-space parking garage. The facility will be part of a national network of laboratories dedicated to countering bioterror agents by developing drugs, treatments, and vaccines.

The University of Louisville has received $10.25 million from a bill approved by the U.S. Senate to fund the construction of a 134,700-sf biomedical research building. The facility will be constructed on the university's health sciences campus. The funding is part of $28 million the university will receive to support research initiatives.

The Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Hospital and Health System are developing a joint 295,000-sf research facility in Wauwatosa, Wis. The $117-million project will be comprised of a two-level facility for laboratory and support services, and two three-story laboratory wings, one for each organization. Construction is slated to begin in late fall of 2004 with the center opening in December 2006.

California Pacific Medical Center’s Research Institute has been awarded almost $27 million in federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense. California Pacific Medical Center is planning over $1 billion in upcoming construction projects at its San Francisco campuses, including a new 100,000-sf research center at the Pacific campus that will be constructed in six years.

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.

Merck opened the 300,000-sf Edward M. Scolnick Research Center in Boston in early October 2004. Featuring 12 stories above ground and six stories below ground, the facility will accommodate a total of 500 employees, including 400 scientists developing treatments for obesity, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. Sited on the Emmanuel College campus, the biomedical research center was designed by architectural and engineering firm Kling.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Skanska USA the construction management services assignment for its new Biomedical Research Center in Baltimore , Md. Construction is under way on the 560,000-sf biomedical research laboratory designed to house the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute on Drug Abuse programs. The construction value is approximately $166 million. The new facility will contain clinical and research labs, office space, conference and lobby areas, and common sections with a library, food service, and security system throughout the building.