Research and Development

The U.S.

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has received approval from the federal government to build a laboratory for the study of potential biological weapons in Livermore, Calif. Rated Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3), the lab will enable research in the detection of potential threats including anthrax, botulism, and other diseases. In planning the facility, the National Nuclear Security Administration reviewed 92 public comments and, as a result, incorporated 33 changes to the planned facility.

San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has completed a 5,000-sf fuel contamination research and testing laboratory. The facility houses over 4,200-sf of lab space and 12 automated test cells, one dedicated to hybrid fuel cell testing, two to diesel, and nine to gasoline, enabling a greater flexibility in the number of systems and components that can be tested at one time.

The South Texas Blood & Tissue Center (STBTC) will soon complete a 44,000-sf expansion that will include a nucleic acid testing laboratory enabling earlier detection of Hepatitis C and HIV. The testing process will provide over 80 hospitals and clinics with the highest quality of blood available. The $10-million expansion will increase STBTC's headquarters to 125,000-sf and will include expanded facilities for umbilical blood storage.

The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio is broke ground in December on a new $20-million research facility in Edinburg, one of three new facilities being constructed as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC). Sited on 12 acres adjacent to the University of Texas Pan American campus, the Edinburg facility will house RAHC's medical research division.

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) is planning the Mission Bay Cancer Research Center. The research facility, expected to reach completion in 2006, will cost over $100-million. UCSF plans to develop a total of 2.65 million sf of biomedical laboratory and instructional space at its Mission Bay campus, for a construction cost of more than $2-billion.

The University of California, San Francisco has completed the 434,000-sf Genentech Hall on its Mission Bay Campus. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership served as design consultant to SmithGroup for the facility, which is the first to be constructed on the new 43-acre campus in San Francisco. Genentech Hall encompasses chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology and computational laboratories, laboratory support, offices, conference facilities, an auditorium, and a cafeteria.

Icon Clinical Research will consolidate operations totalling 25,000 sf from offices in San Bruno and Mountain View with a move in early 2003 to a five-story R&D and office building in Redwood City. Icon provides biometric and clinical research services for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. 

Drexel University will partner with Swarthmore-based e4n-6 Corp., a computer forensics lab, and El Segundo, Calif.-base Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit defense research firm, to create the Institute for Advanced Forensic Engineering. Aerospace Corp. will provide access to its $140-million worth of computers and communications technologies, accommodating the Institute's research into advanced cyber- and physical forensics.

NASA's current 20-year plan for San Jose's Moffett Field involves creation of a research and development park including almost 2,000 residential units. U.C. Santa Cruz, San Jose State University, and DeAnza-Foothill Community College district may open satellite campuses in the park to accommodate nanotechnology, biotechnology and information sciences research.

Bayer Diagnostics, a division of Bayer Corp., has vacated seven East Bay locations to consolidate operations in a recently completed 75,000-sf Berkeley building. Located in Wareham Development's Aquatic Park where Bayer Diagnostics will continue to occupy space in two adjacent buildings, the five-story facility was built to the division's specifications.

Certek, a Raleigh, N.C., builder of modular biodefense research laboratories, was awarded a $2.1 million contract to construct a biodefense lab for the Pentagon. The lab will be manufactured in Durham, N.C., and transported to Washington D.C. for use by military services.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is planning to build an additional biodefense research lab facility on its Bethesda, Md., campus. NIH is also investing in campus renovations and new construction including a research center, clinic addition, lab space, and patient units. Ground was recently broken on a new 25-room family lodge to accommodate families who have patients at NIH. Security systems upgrades including a new visitors center and commercial delivery inspection station are also planned.

The Food and Drug Administration has leased 65,760 sf in a new building under construction in College Park for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Laboratories will comprise 23,000-sf of the facility with the remainder as office space. Developed by Herndon-based Cambridge, the building is sited on 4.4 acres of land adjacent to an existing 300,000-sf FDA facility. Build-out of the facility, which will contain an additional 15,000-sf available for lease, will commence in March 2003. 

Cedra Clinical Research opened its new $1.4-million, 23,500-sf clinical trials research center in Austin in November 2002. Increasing Cedra's number of beds from 60 to 100, the center features amenities for study participants including space for recreational activities and movie screenings, a study area with computers, and comfortable furniture. Cedra conducts clinical trials in various therapeutic areas such as asthma and allergy research, hypertension, and diabetes.