Cancer, Genetics and Biotechnology Researchers Will Work Together in New $80 Million Building

November 15, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A congressional appropriation of $2.25 million, approved by President George W. Bush on Monday (11/12) will boost the future construction of an $80 million facility for genetics, cancer and biotechnology research at the University of Florida.

Announcement of the funding, along with the recent hiring of a building contractor and architectural firm, and the approval of a bond issue, pave the way for designing the new facility. Targeted for groundbreaking in the spring of 2003, the proposed 355,000-square-foot structure will house major research and educational programs of the UF Genetics Institute, the UF Shands Cancer Center and the UF-based Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, or ICBR, a statewide resource serving more than 800 scientists.

The building will be immediately west of the UF Health Science Center at the intersection of Archer Road and North-South Drive and will have its own utility plant. By locating it next door to the Jerry and Judith Davis Cancer Center, an outpatient facility of the UF Shands Cancer Center, planners hope it will be easy for scientists who are exploring cancer at the cellular, molecular and genetics levels to collaborate with health professionals caring for patients.

U.S. Rep. Karen Thurman (D-Dunnellon), who advocated on behalf of the University of Florida for the latest federal funds, said, “The building will provide a valuable research environment for scientists to discover the genetic abnormalities that cause cancers and other diseases, and to develop effective ways to treat the patients.

“This state-of-the-art facility will help to encourage collaboration among scientists from various backgrounds, speed the process of discovery, and ultimately save lives,” Thurman said.

Design work is to be initiated within the next few weeks by the Hunton Brady Pryor Maso Architectural Firm in Orlando, which will work with laboratory planners Ellenzweig Associates in Boston. Construction will be managed by Turner/PPI Joint Venture.

“Sharing resources is the primary rationale for locating the three programs in one complex,” said project manager Frank Javaheri with the UF Facilities Planning and Construction Division.

A $6.5 million biotechnology research pavilion — a new home for the ICBR — will be the first part of the complex to be built. The pavilion will feature laboratories designed and equipped to help scientists explore the genetic makeup of humans, animals and plants. Future installations will include high-speed robotic machinery for analyzing huge volumes of genetic material such as sequences of DNA or proteins. Researchers will seek to identify the functions of genes and how they are regulated, as well as to define the roles of proteins produced by the genes.

Sheldon Schuster, director of the ICBR, views the future facility as a crossroad for scientists in the field of genetics and other life sciences at the molecular level. He said scientists working in the pavilion will be able to sequence and analyze DNA and individual genes; analyze cells via flow cytometry; develop genetic markers for use in conservation biology; and identify protein markers that signal environmental contamination or stress.

The genetics section will be occupied by close to 40 researchers, along with their support teams from the UF Health Science Center, UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Florida Museum of Natural History. The building will house the C.A. Pound Laboratory and the Maples Center for Forensic Medicine.

Dr. Terence Flotte, director of the UF Genetics Institute and the Powell Gene Therapy Center, said some of the key genetics research projects will include the development of human gene therapy for diseases such as muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, genetic emphysema, genetic forms of blindness, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; the Floral Genome Project, through which UF researchers from the botany department and the Florida Museum of Natural History are using DNA analysis to track the relatedness and biodiversity of plant species throughout evolutionary history; the Maize (corn) genome project, in which IFAS scientists hope to identify key genes involved in disease resistance and the nutritional quality of food crops; and studies of evolutional biology, led by scientists from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. These projects have garnered more than $50 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Stratford May, director of the UF Shands Cancer Center, says close to 40 UF scientists and 300 support personnel will work in the cancer research laboratories. Researchers will focus on better defining the biology of tumor growth and suppression of growth, and on evaluating new treatments. They also will explore the pharmacology of cancer drugs, develop and test new drugs that attack tumors by destroying the blood vessels that feed them, and evaluate new forms of gene therapy for various cancers in animals. Studies of normal and abnormal cell growth are expected to lead to clinical trials to evaluate new therapies and prevention strategies.

Financial support for the new research complex comes from many sources. Contributions to the $6.5 million ICBR pavilion include a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, $1.5 million from the UF Research Foundation; $500,000 from the UF College of Medicine; $500,000 from UF’s IFAS, and $500,000 from the ICBR.

Funding for the genetics/cancer facility — in addition to the latest $2.25 million congressional appropriation — includes approximately $30 million to be raised through a bond issue; $5 million in planning and construction grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and about $37 million in miscellaneous gifts and grants.