Millstone Medical Outsourcing announced that the company successfully completed the move of its Memphis operations to a new facility located in Olive Branch, MS, a suburb of Memphis, TN. As of January 7, Millstone Medical was fully-operational in the new state-of-the-art facility after a complex two-stage moving approach that required validation of equipment and processes and approval from close to 35 customers. The new facility offers 150,000 square feet of operational space, more than three times the size of the previous facility, for mechanical inspection, world-class loaner kit processing, bone/tissue storage, innovative packaging services, and distribution. Millstone, outsource partner to the nation's top orthopedic companies, is the fast-growing provider of advanced inspection, clean room packaging, loaner kit processing, and distribution services to medical and dental device manufacturers worldwide.

The expansion to the new facility was precipitated by the growing needs of customers. In addition to significantly increased space, the new facility provides high-speed data lines for the company's cutting-edge enterprise resource planning (ERP) system; new equipment, including high speed autoclaves, freezers, back-up generators, and racking for storage; and enhanced security systems. The benefits of the new facility are expected to be additional space for customer expansion as well as the ability for Millstone to enhance capacity, add new capabilities, and offer greater flexibility.

"With professionals from both the Memphis and Fall River locations working round the clock and over weekends, Millstone was able to finish the complicated move without disruption within three days," said Karl Neuberger , Vice President of Memphis Operations of Millstone Medical Outsourcing. "The additional operational space allows Millstone to expand programs for existing customers and to bring on new customers. We are tremendously excited about all the possibilities the new facility will deliver for the company and our customers."

Grand Valley State University Planning New Biology Building

Grand Valley State University is planning to build a new biology building in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The project scope includes constructing a 144,000-sq-ft building that will contain classrooms, teaching and research labs, and faculty offices. It will be designed by Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, and Pioneer Construction will serve as construction manager.

Construction is expected to begin in August 2013 and be completed in 2015. The project has been valued at $55 million.

Cogmedix Expands To Support Laser-Based Medical Devices

Cogmedix has recently expanded its medical device contract manufacturing facility to add an additional 8,500 ft2. The expansion includes a 400 ft2, Class 10,000 cleanroom with laminar flow hoods for additional sub environment particle control.

The increase in space is accommodating growth in medical device manufacturing, servicing, warehousing, and order fulfillment. There has been a growing demand for manufacturing capabilities to support laser-based medical devices and dental devices.

Cogmedix focuses on complex electro-mechanical devices; assembling, testing, and packaging a variety of sophisticated electronics, sensors, user interfaces, and high-precision mechanical components. The company is an FDA QSR-compliant, ISO 13485-certified contract manufacturer for medical and clinical devices.

A subsidiary of Coghlin Companies Inc., Cogmedix focuses on the production of Class I and Class II medical and clinical devices for the critical care, home healthcare, emergency room, and industrial laboratories markets. The company is located in West Boylston, Mass.

Selah Genomics Establishes Second Clinical Genomics Center

Columbia, SC-based Selah Genomics has formed a new clinical genomics center at the University of South Carolina’s Innovista research campus. The company is a clinical diagnostic specialist supporting healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical industry with molecular and genomic diagnostic services.

“Our new clinical genomics center at Innovista is already actively engaged with several pharmaceutical customers,” said Michael Bolick, Selah’s CEO. “Our team is now transferring our quality management practices from our other facilities to Columbia [SC] and we plan to file for CLIA registration for this new facility in the spring. These efforts also strengthen our ability to serve USC researchers and other clients worldwide.”

“With research and technology at the forefront of genomics, our partnership [with Selah] will help clinicians throughout South Carolina improve health outcomes for patients,” added Harris Pastides, president of the University of South Carolina.

According to Bolick, Selah Genomics growth has been supported by investments from Nexus Medical Partners and SCRA Technology Ventures’ Stage 2 Affiliate.

Pennsylvania State University Millennium Science Complex

Aware that new technologies and scientific breakthroughs are increasingly resulting from research that takes place at the boundaries between disciplines, the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) decided to integrate the Life Sciences department together with the Materials Sciences and Engineering department in a new construction project that would significantly expand the resources available to both.

The resulting building, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, is a 291,500 ft2 facility called the Millennium Science Complex. The building is located within Penn State’s main campus in University Park, Pa. The complex features include:

• 10,000 ft2 of Class 100 and Class 1,000 cleanrooms, materials science characterization laboratories, and imaging research facilities. It also houses 30 biosafety cabinets and 66 fume hoods.

• Innovations in massing, planning, and structural design, such as a 154-ft. cantilever, to protect sensitive underground labs from vibration and acoustic interference.

• A conjoined mechanical penthouse that allows for system redundancies and efficiencies to be shared with Life Sciences and Materials Sciences wings of the building.

• 8,400 net ft2 of structurally isolated "quiet" laboratories for imaging and materials science built as independent structures shielded from vibration and electromagnetism, and located beneath the open garden space.

• Sustainable design strategies include 60,000 ft2 of green roof, storm water recycling, heat recovery wheels to recycle air and absorb energy, and deep-set windows with fritted glass to reduce heat in summer and admit light in winter.

Teams of MRI faculty from across the campus combine their expertise in materials science, chemistry, biology, engineering, physics, and advanced computation to understand and control the properties of matter, the fabrication of devices, and the performance of engineering systems. MRI is centralizing its core user facilities in the Millennium Science Complex. The Materials Characterization Laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility for the synthesis, measurement, and characterization of traditional and advanced material. The Penn State Nanofabrication Facility (Nanofab) is a founding member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), and provides an array of sophisticated instruments for micro- and nanofabrication.

The enclosure system consists primarily of precast concrete cladding panels embedded with a one-inch thick brick veneer. In addition to their contextual appearance, the precast concrete panels also help dampen potential vibrations within the building cantilever by providing mass at the perimeter.

The most vibration-sensitive labs have been located below an area of the garden that has a 4-bay clear span without any structural connections between the basement level and the ground, thus limiting vibration transmission into these ultra-critical spaces.

In order to minimize the impact of foot- and wheel-borne vibrations from runners, skateboarders, and other light vehicles passing through this area, winding paths were introduced in order to force pedestrians to move slowly across the site. Additionally, the mass of planting soil and rocks also helps to minimize the potential movement and vibrations due to foot-fall.

Materials Science Laboratories consist of cleanrooms, quiet laboratories, and high-temperature furnace laboratories in order to support materials research endeavors. Enclosed spaces housing multiple setups, typically fed from overhead carriers, support a wide range of engineering experimental needs. Facilities include:

• The Materials Characterization Laboratory which features more than 70 instruments, in the basement (referred to as the quiet labs).

• The Nanofabrication Facility which consists of 10,000 ft2 of Class 100/1,000 cleanrooms with 6,500 ft2 of support spaces run by expert technical staff who provide hands-on support and training for, or perform research on behalf of, faculty students and industry researchers. The facility enables "fabrication and characterization of a wide range of devices to support fundamental and applied research in diverse fields spanning electronics to medicine."

• The Smart Materials Integration Laboratory, which is designed to allow researchers to "create a new generation of smart integrated components that combine electrical, mechanical, and optical functions ... The laboratory enables the integration and miniaturization of 'smart' materials and the fabrication of components that go beyond conventional semiconductor-based materials."

The Millennium Science Complex is designed to the exacting standards of a world-class laboratory for imaging on the atomic level, and that includes stringent cleanroom performance criteria.

Cleanrooms are served from the sub-fab level below (except for those labs requiring Class C vibration criteria or higher, where thickened slab-on-grade construction is mandated) and arranged with interstitial chases for flexibility and versatility in the distribution of services.

Laminar flow circulation is provided from HEPA-filtered fans above the cleanroom and returned through raised floor plenums and continuous air return slots at the base of demising walls. The sub-fab facility contains systems for treating vented gases, lab wastewater, and used chemicals and further ensures the flexibility and reconfigurability of the cleanroom space above as science and tools continue to develop.

For the Penn State Nanofabrication Laboratory (one of the 14 university-member National Nanofabrication Infrastructure Network funded by the National Science Foundation), the new cleanrooms not only provide the opportunity to do hands-on research with some of the world's most sophisticated instruments for the fabrication and characterization of materials at the nano- and micro-scale, but also doubles the space for nano- and micro-scale device fabrication. Over 400 researchers from Penn State, other universities, government labs, and industry are able to take advantage of the expertise and world-class facilities of the Nanofabrication Laboratory, employing a cross-disciplinary expertise in the areas of spectroscopy, biology, chemistry, physics, optics, electrical engineering, and engineering science.

Measures to mitigate air-entrainment begin with the physical separation of air intake and air exhaust systems. The building is arranged in such a way that all ventilation air is introduced at the Level 4 façade through storm-proof air intake louvers. Additionally, all exhaust air is projected vertically away from the building via a series of general exhaust and fume hood exhaust fans at the roof level. Each exhaust system connects to a vertical stack at the roof level to increase separation distance between its discharge and the building's air intake louvers. The building's fume hoods are exhausted via high-efficiency "vector" type up-blast exhaust fans that discharge into stacks. These fans are provided with integral bypass sections to allow for constant, high velocity discharge further minimizing the risk of re-entrainment.

The building's mechanical systems, including the supply air ventilation systems, general exhaust air systems, fume hood exhaust systems, chilled water pumping systems, and hot water pumping systems, are arranged as an N+1 configuration, allowing for reliable back-up in the event a system component fails or requires routine service.

The building is provided throughout with an automatic temperature control system managed by the BMS. Each laboratory is provided with its own thermostat allowing for precise control of the space's thermal environment via variable volume terminal devices with integral hot water reheat coils.

The building is provided with chilled water steam services via Penn State University's central campus plant. The chilled water enters the building at grade level and is delivered throughout the building through local pumps equipped with high-efficiency motors. Additionally, high pressure steam is provided to the building via the campus plant.

Due to the stepped-form of the building, most of the mechanical equipment on Level 4 is partially located on the cantilevered structure. The air handling units include large fans that together with air flow impart vibration into the rest of the structure down to the foundations. To address these vibrations, the vibration consultant carried out detailed analysis that resulted in modifications to the structure, stringent specifications in the procurement of mechanical equipment, and vibration isolation systems. Detailed vibration analysis, such as empirically validated finite element modeling was undertaken to design the structure and for selecting proper vibration isolation for all mechanical equipment.

In order to verify that surrounding environmental conditions would not impact the building with exhaust air from adjacent buildings or that the Millennium Science Complex would exhaust impurities that impacted adjacent facilities, a wind tunnel air-re-entrainment test was undertaken.

The most significant feature in minimizing electromagnetic interference and vibration is separation distance. The quiet labs, which contain electromagnetic sensitive equipment, were purposefully built an adequate distance away from sources of interference such as passenger/freight elevators and vehicle travel on the two main roads.

The Millennium Science Complex is designed for LEED Silver certification (pending). A large measure of this performance comes from energy-efficient measures, though the most visible element can be seen in the green roofs that cover the stepped building terraces. These green roofs help reduce the heat-island effect and filter pollutants and carbon dioxide from the air surrounding the facility. Other sustainable design strategies include efficient plumbing fixtures and CO2 and O2 monitoring of spaces to optimize conditioning of interior spaces. In addition, sustainably harvested wood was used, more than 90% of construction waste was diverted from disposal at a landfill and at least 10% of materials used in construction were from recycled content and regionally sourced, including the precast concrete enclosure system.

The University envisions the Complex—one of just a few specifically developed to integrate the physical and life sciences—as a place which embodies new modes of research "in which experts from many disciplines coordinate their technologies and knowledge in ways that produce exponential advances," generating a positive return on the University’s investments in the Institutes and this new research infrastructure.

Biogenics Research Chamber to Expand

Biogenics Research Chamber, an allergy testing facility in San Antonio, Texas, has broken ground on an extension. The 5,400 ft2 facility will house a large allergy exposure chamber, a specialty chamber, and eye examination rooms. The chambers will utilize cleanroom technology with complete electrical back-up by generator. The extension will enhance capacity for simultaneous testing of large numbers of participants, while broadening therapeutic testing capabilities.

Biogenics Research Chamber, the only large permanent pollen exposure chamber in the U.S., opened in 2010 in the Medical Center of San Antonio. Projects have included pharmaceutical and vaccine trials and scientific studies elucidating the basic mechanisms and genetics of allergy. The extension, scheduled for completion in January 2014, is engineered to challenge with seasonal pollens as well as year-round allergy-provoking agents including dust mites and cat dander. The specialty chamber is designed for testing of novel agents for non-allergic eye and respiratory conditions.

World’s Tallest Children’s Hospital

The Building Team for the 23-story Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago implements an integrated BIM/VDC workflow to execute a complex vertical program.

The design and construction of the hospital’s 42-foot-high, 60,000-sf mechanical floor was coordinated using BIM/VDC. All MEP subcontractors were co-located with the construction management team during the project in a highly collaborative environment. When clashes or other issues arose, the entire team would gather and come up with a workable solution.

Standing on the 10th floor of the sparkling new Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is not exactly a glamorous experience. Compared with walking the hospital’s double-height glass lobby, which features two magical lifesize whale sculptures suspended from the ceiling, or the 11th-floor Crown Sky Garden, with its expansive views of the city and lakefront, the 10th floor seems relatively mundane.

But standing there in the 42-foot-high space talking with the Building Team members that led the construction of the 1.25 million-sf, 288-bed project over a six-year period, it’s easy to see that the two-story mechanical floor is among their greatest sources of pride on the project.

“This floor alone took 10 people 60 hours a week almost seven months to coordinate,” says Peter Rumpf, LEED AP, Integrated Construction Manager with Mortenson Construction (www.mortenson.com). “The level of complexity and the sheer size of the place really challenged the best builders and VDC/BIM users to the limits.”

It’s the perfect example, says Rumpf, of a space that likely could not have been built within the time frame and budget without the use of building information modeling and virtual design and construction coordination. The 60,000-sf mechanical floor required upwards of 12 layers of information—from the structural design to the MEP systems installation to facilities operations considerations—that had to be carefully coordinated in the model.

To execute this effort, the joint construction management team of Mortenson Construction and Power Construction established a BIM operations center, where as many as 40 subcontractors and construction team members were co-located during the project. Prior to coordination meetings, each subcontractor loaded its updated model into Navisworks. The construction management team then integrated the subs’ models and ran clash detection. Clashes deemed significant were discussed and resolved by the entire team. Tens of thousands of coordination issues were resolved virtually, according to Rumpf, a 2012 BD+C “40 under 40” honoree.

A 12-story cantilever highlights the building’s structural steel design. Beginning at the 11th floor, the building juts out some 15 feet, offering expanded views of the city and lakefront. Using BIM/VDC coordination, the Building Team was able to erect the steel frame in just nine months.

This months-long process of designing then refining in a highly collaborative 3D environment allowed the team to create a true digital prototype of the mechanical spaces. From that prototype, the subcontractors were able to pull installation points and input them into robotic total stations so they could precisely lay out the work as modeled on the project site.

One of the mechanical subcontractors even prefabricated its systems using data from the model to help speed installation and ensure accuracy. All pipe was cut to length and threaded at the firm’s facility nearby and shipped to the site.

“They were able to create work kits,” Rumpf explains. “The team installing the mechanical piping, for example, had a pallet of material that included all the pieces required for that portion of the installation, including hanger rods, unistrut clips, pipe, and insulation.”

While more common today, this level of coordination was virtually unheard of in 2005-06, when the Lurie Children’s project kicked off. “This job changed the Chicago market in terms of BIM capability, because everybody got over the learning curve,” says Eric Hoffman, a former Mortenson Project Manager who joined the hospital as Administrator of Facility Services soon after construction was completed. “The mechanical floor was the absolute critical path on the project.”

The missing piece in most BIM/VDC-driven building projects is operations and maintenance. For legacy facilities like hospitals, schools, and government buildings, the initial cost of construction may only represent 10-15% of the total cost of ownership.

In a 50- or 100-year facility, something as minor as an incorrectly orientated air handler or a poorly placed ventilation fan can lead to decades of inefficiencies, added costs, and potential safety issues for the owner.

The mechanical floor is so dense with equipment and infrastructure required to service the hospital, the Building Team had to model nearly every element of the space, down to small pipes and conduit, to ensure efficient and accurate installation.

To date, few BIM/VDC projects have involved facilities personnel at a deep level. The Building Team for the Lurie Children’s project was one of the early pioneers in this area. During both the design and preconstruction phases, the design and construction teams met with the operations staff to get a better understanding of their processes and procedures and the type of data required for operating and maintaining the building’s equipment. These meetings led to early design decisions that will allow the operations staff to more efficiently service the facility.

“There are numerous opportunities on the front end, looking at the model, to do some facilities-oriented solutions,” says Hoffman. “The designer or engineer may think they need this type of fan, but the facilities person is thinking, ‘To service this piece of equipment, I have to pull it out a certain way and it weighs 150 pounds, so how do I get it out and down safely?’ These are the kinds of exercises the team can do on the front end that can make the difference between 50 years of a bad design or a design that is efficient, easy, and safe.”

A prime example at the Lurie Children’s tower is the access pathways designed into the mechanical room that allow the facilities team to service the equipment and perform regular inspections.

“See that ladder right there?” Rumpf asked during a tour of the facility, pointing to a small steel ladder bolted to the wall that leads up between two massive ducts. “That’s part of our ‘chutes and ladders’ exercise.” Because the mechanical floor is so dense with equipment and infrastructure, the Building Team had to devise pathways for facilities personnel and fire/life safety inspectors to reach critical areas, such as fire sprinkler heads and smoke dampers.

Rumpf admits that some of the access solutions are not all that elegant, but they’re effective in helping the operations team service the space. For instance, the ladder leads to a smoke damper 40 feet overhead and obscured by layers of ductwork. Every six years, the damper must be inspected to ensure it’s working properly. To reach it, a facilities staffer must climb the ladder, transition across an air-handling unit, open up an access zone inside a 12-foot-wide duct, step into the duct, open a door on the other side of the duct, step out onto a platform, and climb up another ladder.

Two-dimensional drawings of the mechanical space proved ineffective in communicating what was required to get all the systems built and installed properly, so the team utilized 3D BIM model views. Views of the coordination model were plotted out and referenced by the mechanical contractors during the build.

“It was an extreme challenge for us to fit all the systems together and get them to work together and then layer back how we were going to service this space,” says Rumpf. “I don’t know how it would have been done without 3D BIM coordination. A smoke damper like that may have been ignored in the past.”

The team also devised a tie-off system of aircraft cables embedded in the slab above the space that is useful for both construction and O&M. To ensure the safety of the users, the team utilized the model to determine the optimal location of the tie-off points so that a person is no farther than 10 feet from a tie-off point at any given time.

Because no two floors in the hospital are the same, measuring and improving the construction progress from floor to floor proved difficult.

“It’s not like a hotel, where we can track how long it took to build the first five floors and come up with ways to build the remaining floors faster,” says Rumpf. “We didn’t have the luxury of repetition.”

To validate its MEP systems installation processes, the team utilized laser scanners to create a point cloud model of the installed systems. The data was then inputted into Navisworks, where the team could visually inspect the difference between the construction BIM model and the digital representation of reality. By continually measuring the delta between the real world and the digital model, they were able to quickly recognize any disconnects.

Rumpf cites the building’s pneumatic tube system as an example: “The person who was creating the model was using shapes and bends that would not allow the containers carrying medical samples and supplies to get from point A to point B in the specified time. The installer knew that to meet the performance specification the tube system could not have too many bends and made the necessary adjustments in the field. As a result, the radiuses in the model were different from those installed. Because of the laser scanning and BIM analysis, we were able to catch this early on and have the installer review and sign off on the altered design before installation drawings were produced.”

The two whale sculptures suspended from the lobby ceiling were donated to Lurie Children’s when the project was about 85% complete. To accommodate the massive pieces spatially and structurally, the team laser scanned the whales to determine their size and scale.

The Building Team also used laser scanning to capture the geometries of the whale sculptures in the lobby, which were donated by the Shedd Aquarium when construction was 85% complete. The mother and calf were in a half dozen pieces in the basement of the Field Museum. The team placed each piece on tripods, laser scanned them, and then stitched together the scans to create a complete picture of the sculpture. The point cloud information was used to create an accurate digital model, which the architectural and structural teams used to spatially orient and support the whales. The installation required both structural reinforcement and rigging, all while the project was nearing completion.

“Could we have done it without the 3D model coordination? Probably,” says Rumpf. “But it would have cost more, and there probably would have been some modifications to the end product. We were able to accomplish this with very few concessions to the design intent, and the schedule was not impacted at all.”

PROJECT SUMMARY

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

Chicago, Ill.

Size: 1.25 million sf

Construction cost: (excluding land): $605 million

Completed: June 2012

Floors: 23

BUILDING TEAM

Owner: Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

Architects: ZGF Architects LLP; Solomon Cordwell Buenz; Anderson Mikos Architects

Structural engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates

MEP engineer: Affiliated Engineers

Construction managers: Mortenson Construction, Power Construction (joint venture)

Catalent Opens Madison Bio-CoE

Catalent Pharma Solutions has opened its new biomanufacturing Center of Excellence in Madison, WI. The new facility quadruples current biologics manufacturing capacity and allows the company to extend its offerings as well as enhance the efficiency and output of its GPEx cell line engineering technology and other mammalian cell lines. Catalent has moved its 89 employees to the 100,000-sq.-ft. Madison site, and eventually plans to employ more than 100 people at the site.

Also, Catalent has recently acquired an exclusive license to market Redwood Bioscience’s SMARTag precision protein-chemical engineering technology for the development of advanced antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Redwood’s site-specific protein modification and linker technologies enable the generation of homogenous bioconjugates engineered to enhance potency, safety and stability. Catalent will combine its GPEx cell line expression system with SMARTag for the rapid development of stable, high yielding cell lines, and a broad range of analytical and fill-finish services.

The facility is designed for flexible cGMP production from 10L up to 1000L, and non-GMP production up to 250L, and features single-use technologies and unidirectional flow. Manufacturing is supported by integrated analytical, formulation development and viral clearance capabilities, small-scale and large-scale process development labs, and separate microbiology and Quality Control functions.

“Our new biomanufacturing Center of Excellence has been specifically designed to meet our customers’ needs through improved delivery of integrated services in the areas of biologic development and manufacturing, and we will be pleased to welcome many of them on site at the official opening,” said Barry Littlejohns, president of Catalent’s Biologics business. “The extensive application of single-use technology greatly reduces the risk of cross contamination and gives us huge flexibility and scale, while our on-site capabilities enable us to provide our customers with solutions for even the most difficult to express proteins.”

Harlan Labs Expands North American Facilities

Harlan Laboratories is expanding its specialty research production facilities in Indianapolis and Livermore, CA, doubling the number of isolators for its immunocompromized models.

The environmentally controlled breeding isolators are supported by individual air supply and HEPA filtered air handling to ensure the integrity of the colony within each isolator. The facilities also feature the latest equipment and biosecurity measures including a watering system with automatic flushing to help prevent the unwanted proliferation of organisms, as well as a backup power system.

“Our investment in these facilities underscores our commitment to providing the highest quality research models and services to investigators across the globe,” said Joe Meyer, vice president Global Commercial Operations at Harlan Laboratories. “We will continue to expand and enhance our facilities worldwide to meet the needs of the research community in key therapeutic research areas like oncology, immunology and toxicology with consistently dependable research models, diets and supporting services.”

Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute

The University of California and San Diego (UCSD) initiated construction of Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (CTRI) building at La Jolla in San Diego, US, in January 2013.

The CTRI will provide laboratory and clinical researchers with an environment for collaboration and resource-sharing to better understand and treat diseases such as cancer, arthritis and diabetes.

The building is named after Lisa and Steve Altman, who contributed $10m in funding for the construction of the CTRI building in March 2011. The construction is expected to be completed by 2016.

The facility will provide employment to about 1,000 people, including about 100 principal investigators. It will be home to biomedical informatics specialists, telemedicine specialists, electronic health record technology specialists, imaging specialists and biomedical engineers.

The new facility will be a seven storey building with three floors below ground and four above.

The building will have a pentagonal structure, which will be enclosed with a terrace at street level, a courtyard on lower level three, and another terrace on the exterior of the auditorium at level one, which will feature a green theme.

The facility will be connected to the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Centre by a pier-supported pedestrian bridge.

The new facility will be engaged in research to accelerate the development new technologies, drugs and procedures for patients. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and clinical research facilities. It will invite talented people from all disciplines, such as physicians, geneticists, engineers, immunologists and computer scientists, to carry out research and to collaborate cures for specific diseases.

The Altman CTRI will also be the new home for the UC San Diego pediatric diabetes research centre.

The building will have a total floor space of 359,000ft2. It will include about 189,000ft2 of space for research and core laboratories, 66,000ft2 of space for the dry research, multiple conference rooms, a large lecture hall and other facilities.

CTRI administration offices will also be located in the building. Other facilities will include a vivarium, auditorium, and café.

The ground breaking for the construction of the CTRI facility was held on 17 January 2013. The preliminary construction works on the site are now underway. The actual construction work is expected to begin April 2013 and is scheduled to be completed in 30 months, by 2016.

The building will target to achieve LEED Silver (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. It will be constructed in compliance with environmentally-friendly norms and will use zero energy strategies.

The new CTRI facility has been designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) architects. The construction contract has been awarded to Rudolph and Sletten, who will act as construction manager, with assistance from UC San Diego Facilities Design and Construction.

Rudolph and Sletten has invited bids for 38 subcontract works for the construction of the building.

The total estimated investment for the construction of the project is about $269m. It is financed with $10m funding by Steve and Lisa Altman, the San Diego-based philanthropists. The rest of the project costs will be met through external and public funding as part of research funding from the UCSD.

Clinical and Translational Research Building, University of Florida

The University of Florida started construction of a new clinical and translation research building at its Gainesville campus in Florida in May 2011. The construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by spring 2013.

The facility is expected to serve as headquarters for clinical and translational science at the university. The project is being sponsored by University of Florida (UF) and the NIH National Center for Research Resources.

The facility will be a hub for expanding research network, which will connect all 16 colleges within the Florida university campus as well as Shands HealthCare and the North Florida / South Georgia Veterans Health System.

The design for the new clinical and translational research building was provided by Perkins+Will architects. The facility is being constructed on a 2.57 acre site located in the University of Florida campus.

The building will have two wings, which will be connected with a hub on the east side. It will have a two storey glass-walled atrium-lobby at the centre. The building will also feature a garden.

The new clinical and translation research building will have a total floor space of 120,000ft², which includes 40,000ft² ageing institute complex in the south wing, and 80,000ft² clinical and translational sciences institute in the north wing.

All the clinical research spaces will be located in the ground floor. The administrative, support spaces and offices for staff and researchers will be located respectively in second and third, fourth and fifth floors of the building.

The new facility will have a clinical and translational science institute, Institute on Aging, UF clinical research centre and department of health outcomes and policy. It will also have department of biomedical informatics, department of epidemiology, department of biostatistics and geriatric research.

The Institute on Aging will be a one-stop facility that will make it easier for mobility-restricted older adults to take part in clinical trials and strengthen connections among existing UF research centers including the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, the CTSI and the Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research Program. It will also include a geriatric medicine multispecialty clinic.

The facility will also have an array of other research departments, as well as sophisticated conference, training and reception areas.

The new clinical and translational research building broke ground for construction in May 2011. The building was topped out in May 2012. It is expected to be opened in spring 2013.

The building was designed by Perkins + Will architects. The building construction contract was awarded to Skanska. Mechanical and electrical engineering support was provided by Moses and Associates.

Other key contractors involved in the construction of the building are AEI, SEG, Siebein and Associates, Brame Architects, Williams-Scotsman and Brentwood Company.

The estimated investment for the construction of the building is $45m. It was financed with $15m under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 by the NIH National Center for Research Resources. The University of Florida contributed $30m for the construction of the 80,000ft² facility.

The new building is being constructed with environmentally sustainable features. It is aimed to achieve LEED platinum certification. The building will have solar panels and systems. It will use rainwater for flushing toilets and irrigation. The designers increased the thickness of glass in the facility to keep out the noise of a power plant situated adjacent to the facility.

University of Washington (UW) Medicine Research Complex, Seattle

The new medical research complex at University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine in South Lake, Seattle was completed in March 2013. The new facility will house many of the university's biomedical research laboratories. It is expected to receive certifications by spring 2013.

The construction was primarily sponsored by UW School of Medicine, Vulcan Real Estate and the National Development Council.

The new phase three research centre has a total floor space of about 330,000ft², in a seven storey building. The research complex is surrounded with beautiful landscape and features a tree-lined sidewalk. It has two spacious seminar rooms with videoconferencing capabilities and also features 266 parking spaces located in two bays.

The third phase has laboratories for kidney research, vision sciences, rheumatology, immunology and infectious disease investigations. The scientists at the new facility will focus on a number of medical conditions, including multiple sclerosis, blindness, malaria, lupus and renal failure.

The new facility will be engaged in developing life-changing therapies and medical breakthroughs that will positively impact the health of future generations. The facility can accommodate between 1,000 and 1,200 researchers and support staff.

The construction of the research complex was completed in three phases. The total floor space of the medical research complex in all the three phases is about 800,000ft².

The design and planning for the construction of the research complex began in September 2003. The facility broke ground for construction in 2004. The first phase of construction was completed in January 2005. It included a total floor space of 215,000ft².

The facilities constructed in the first phase included laboratories intended to carry out research in microbiology, biomarkers, biologic imaging, cancer vaccines, heart regeneration, inflammation and proteomics.

The second phase of construction began in 2006 and was completed in 2008. It included 170,000ft² laboratory building and 86,000ft² office building.

The research facilities opened at the complex during the second phase included biology, therapeutic delivery systems, neurobiology, genetics, and regenerative medicine. The research facilities are specifically focused on diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, diabetes, hearing loss, strokes, heart regeneration, liver diseases, and bone and joint regeneration and repair.

The Board of Regents approved the third phase of the medical research complex's construction in April 2010. The third phase broke ground in July 2011 and was completed in March 2013.

The building design and architectural support was provided by Perkins+Will. The landscape design was provided by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN). The construction contract for the building was awarded to Sellen Construction.

The structural engineer for the second phase of construction was Magnusson Klemencic Associates. The electrical and mechanical engineer was Affiliated Engineers NW. The civil engineer for the second phase was Coughlin Porter Lundeen.

The first phase of construction was sponsored by philanthropy funding from Jeffrey H Brotman. The second phase of construction was contributed by Tom and Sue Ellison, Lynn and Mike Garvey, the Oki Foundation, Quellos, Safeco and the Orin Smith Family Foundation.

The total investment on the third phase of the medical research complex construction was $165m. The construction cost of the building was $113m. The National Development Council sponsored the third phase.

BioOutsource Opens New Facility in Cambridge, MA

BioOutsource, a provider of contract testing services to the biopharmaceutical industry, has opened a new facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, its first in the U.S.

The Glasgow, Scotland-headquartered firm plans to draw on its experience of providing biosimilar characterization assays to its European customers to provide similar services throughout North America.

‘We have opened this new office in response to increasing demand from across the North American market for our market-leading BioAnalytical services, and particularly in the field of biological biosimilar characterization,’ said BioOutsource’s CEO Gerry MacKay.

‘Our US office will facilitate engagement with North American customers for our off-the-shelf biosimilar biological characterization assays, for example for Humira, Enbrel, Rituxan, Herceptin, Remicade, and Avastin.’

The office is located at the Cambridge Innovation Center, near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus and home to a number of growing life sciences and venture capital firms.

MacKay added: ‘We see the North American market as an essential strategic element of our global expansion plans. We remain committed not only to growing our business in North America but also in nurturing our relationships with our existing North American clients.’

Wayne State Opens Cleanroom Lab for R&D

Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan will increase and diversify microtechnology research at its multimillion dollar Nano Fabrication Core Facility by opening its cleanroom lab to researchers, students, and companies throughout the region.

Wayne State University in Detroit has announced an initiative to increase and diversify microtechnology research at its multimillion dollar Nano Fabrication Core Facility (nFab). The cleanroom lab, which was originally built to focus on automotive applications, has been home to a broader set of nanotechnology research and development by WSU faculty and students. WSU has re-launched the lab and opened it to researchers, students, and companies throughout the region, who would otherwise not have access to the rare microfabrication environment, with a valuation exceeding approximately $12 million.

“The lab initially focused on the automotive industry but has widened its scope to include biosensors, targeted drug delivery and medical devices,” says nFab Director and WSU Department of Chemistry Professor David Coleman. “Microfabrication is now used in many research fields, from biological micro-electromechanical systems to nano-electrochemechanical systems and from flat-panel displays to solar cells and more. There’s really no limit to how this lab can assist researchers looking to discover and create new things.”

The nFab lab, located in the College of Engineering, was originally established in 2002 thanks to a major contribution from Delphi. Its mission is to create devices that benefit humanity. The lab provides researchers with three distinct microfabrication services: deposition (the addition of materials), lithography (the defining of materials), and etching (the removal of materials). Cutting-edge processes and equipment include a high-temperature furnace, low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), E-beam evaporator, sputtering, photolithography, isotropic wet or dry etching, anisotropic wet or dry etching, and metal lift-off.

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yong Xu has developed a technology that opens new possibilities for health care and medical applications of electronic devices. Xu’s flexible electronics technology could result in retinal processors that cause less tissue irritation and more comfortable wearable health-monitoring devices, balloon catheters, stents, and more.

Xu is only one of Wayne State’s many expert faculty members utilizing the lab. College of Engineering Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Amar Basu is working on a variety of projects, including one involving environmental sensors for preventing invasive species in the Great Lakes. Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mark Ming-Cheng hopes to create a robust, chronic neural prosthesis using high-capacity graphene electrodes and biodegradable silicon support to treat a variety of neurological illnesses. Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Parastoo Hashemi’s work developing new micro-electrochemical electrodes for neurological research may have significant implications for those battling depression and other mental disorders. And Assistant Professor of Physics Zhixian Zhou is investigating the correlation of transport properties with edge structure in suspended graphene nanoribbon field effect transistors, which could have possible applications in touch screens, solar cells, fast transistors, gas sensors, and lightweight, high-strength materials.

A wide variety of researchers from universities and companies across Michigan and the U.S. have already begun to take advantage of the state-of-the-art technologies and services available. Graduate and undergraduate programs in engineering, physics, and more can hold specialized classes in nFab to provide an introduction to the unique technologies involved. Researchers from the Karmanos Cancer Institute, H2Scan, General Motors, and Argonne National Laboratories have used the lab’s equipment and services to create new technologies

Monsanto Plans Expansion in Chesterfield

Monsanto Co. plans to spend more than $400 million to expand the Chesterfield Village Research Center, 700 Chesterfield Parkway.

The expansion, which includes 36 greenhouses, 250 labs and plant growth chambers, is expected to create 675 new jobs. In one of the biggest corporate expansions the St. Louis region has seen in years, Monsanto said that it would add 675 jobs and invest more than $400 million at its research facility in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Construction is scheduled to begin in August and continue for three years.

State and local incentives will total up to $53.5 million, including tax credits contingent on new job creation.

The research center, built by Monsanto, opened in 1984. After Monsanto's merger in 2000 with Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc., the center was owned by Pharmacia, then Pfizer.

Monsanto, which became an independent company in 2002, reacquired the center in 2010.

“This is a tremendous investment in the future of agricultural research and development in the state we proudly call home,” said Jerry Steiner, Monsanto’s executive vice president for sustainability and corporate affairs. “This gives our researchers what they need to get farmers the tools they need so that we all — 9 billion of us in a few decades — will be able to get the food we need.”

The company plans to add 400,000 square feet of lab space, greenhouses and high-tech plant growth chambers at the research center, which it originally built in 1984 and reacquired from Pfizer in 2010. Construction is scheduled to begin in August.

The investment, as well as the creation of hundreds of high-paying jobs in the St. Louis region, will help cement Missouri’s place in the burgeoning plant-science industry, said Gov. Jay Nixon.

“It’s a worldwide kind of announcement from an iconic company,” Nixon said. “It really amplifies St. Louis’ footprint in the industry.”

The company will also draw sizable state and local incentives for the expansion.

Monsanto will be eligible for $22 million in Missouri Quality Jobs tax credits if it creates all 675 promised jobs, and the Missouri Development Finance Board is considering a request for $9.5 million in Build Missouri bonds.

The company has also emphasized its emerging “biologicals” platform, which centers on topical seed treatment products that could potentially control viruses, kill insects and provide more weed control.

Monsanto has also stressed growth in new parts of the world, particularly in Brazil and Argentina, as well as in Eastern Europe. The company is preparing to launch a new glyphosate-tolerant bean in Brazil — the first product developed specifically for an international market.