Biotechnology

DuPont opened the DuPont Knowledge Center in Hyderabad, India, in November of 2008. The $30 million facility houses laboratories for biotechnology, materials research, engineering design, and applications development. The project broke ground in summer of 2007 and can accommodate up to 600 scientists and staff. Housing basic research, bioinformatics, product development, and patent services, the Knowledge Center will support DuPont’s industrial and plant biotechnology operations in the Asia Pacific region.

Siemens Healthcare completed an 115,000-sf expansion of its Diagnostic Reagent Facility in East Walpole, Mass., in November of 2008. Comprised of manufacturing and warehouse facilities, the project was finished by Columbia Construction three months ahead of schedule. The sustainably-designed expansion features an energy-efficient roof, light sensors, high-efficiency equipment motors, and a water recharge system.

The University of Utah will break ground in summer of 2009 on the $130 million James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building in Salt Lake City. The 193,000-sf project is part of the $500 million Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) and will anchor the University’s new Interdisciplinary Quadrangle. Housing advanced imaging and nanotechnology laboratories, the facility will include a 20,000-sf nanofabrication suite. The multidisciplinary building will support biomedical and neuroscience research.

Imperial College London opened its £8.4 million bioengineering education and research facility in London in October of 2008. Located on the South Kensington campus, the project will provide research and teaching laboratories, lecture halls, offices, and conference rooms for the Department of Bioengineering.

The North Carolina Research Campus celebrated the opening of three buildings on its 350-acre life sciences campus in Kannapolis in October of 2008. The $1.5 billion project was designed by Narmour Wright Creech Architecture and developed by Castle & Cooke. The campus includes the 311,000-sf Murdock Core Lab which features a basement vivarium housing 48,000 rodents.

Genzyme Corp. opened the $125 million Science Center in Framingham, Mass., on September 22, 2008. Designed by ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, the facility has attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification. The six-story, 180,000-sf building houses laboratories and offices united by a central atrium. The facility will house 350 employees engaged in cardiovascular, cancer, immunology, and neurology research.

RainDance Technologies dedicated its new headquarters and manufacturing facility in Lexington, Mass., on September 26, 2008. The 28,000-sf facility will house administrative offices and commercial manufacturing operations. RainDance Technologies is a provider of droplet-based microfluidic solutions for human health and disease research.

DuPont opened the Biotech Research Center in September of 2008 in Hyderabad, India. Located at the DuPont Knowledge Center, the facility will support research in crop genetics and industrial biotechnology for DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition and DuPont Applied BioSciences. Additional facilities at the DuPont Knowledge Center will open in successive months to house a total of 600 scientists and engineers when the complex is dedicated by year-end 2008.

The University of Illinois dedicated the newly renovated and expanded Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MNTL) in Urbana-Champaign on September 4, 2008. The $18 million project created additional laboratory, classroom, research, and meeting facilities. The expansion will support research for the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Compound Semiconductor Microelectronics. The MNTL houses research laboratories for micro and nanoelectronics, nanophotonics and optoelectronics, nanomedicine and bionanotechnology, MEMS/NEMS, and integrated systems research.

The University of New Mexico will receive $750,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce to support the fourth phase of development at its Manufacturing Training and Technology Center in Albuquerque. The existing 56,000-sf facility includes a 6,200-sf training cleanroom. The fourth phase will expand the center’s lab-based training programs supporting the industries of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and medical devices.

Rice University is constructing the Collaborative Research Center in Houston. The 477,000-gsf project broke ground in December of 2006 and is slated for completion in early spring of 2009. Sited on 2.9 acres, the ten-story facility will accommodate bioscience and biotechnology research. The estimated construction cost of the LEED-certified facility is between $200 million and $300 million.

Charles Stark Draper Laboratory is planning to create a bioMEMS research and development center at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The facility will support research in microelectromechancial systems for biomedical applications in partnership with USF and its medical school. Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, based in Cambridge, Mass., will also construct a production center in St. Petersburg for the manufacture of multi-chip modules combining multiple integrated circuits on a single chip.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center will construct a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) tissue laboratory for the Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Located in the Richard Dean Biomedical Research Building in Piedmont Triad Research Park, the facility will support the creation of tissues and engineered organs for the rehabilitation of soldiers. The facility is created in partnership with the Department of Defense’s Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a multi-institutional consortium of research centers.

DuPont opened its new maize research center in Los Mochis, Mexico in June of 2008. Supporting the acceleration of seed product development for DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred business group, the facility will enable the delivery of advanced genetics and technologies to increase farm productivity. The center is the fourth Pioneer crop genetics facility in Mexico and will support the development of superior maize hybrids.

Eli Lilly dedicated the Bioproduct Research and Development Laboratory in Indianapolis on May 12, 2008. The 475,000-sf, four-story facility will accommodate 500 scientists and staff in 33 labs engaged in biopharmaceutical research. The project represents the final phase of construction at Lilly’s three-building biotechnology complex. The first two phases include a 250,000-sf bioproduct manufacturing plant and a 10,000-sf research support facility, both completed in fall of 2006.