Groundbreaking set Oct. 5 for Lake Nona Research and Academic Center

September 28, 2010

WHAT: Groundbreaking for the University of Florida’s Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5

WHERE: Immediately west of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, 6400 Sanger Road in Orlando.

BACKGROUND: The UF Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona will be a $44 million, 100,000-square-foot facility that will house the following:

• A clinical research unit from UF’s Institute on Aging
• Expansion of the College of Pharmacy’s Ph.D. program in the emerging field of pharmacometrics, an area of research which seeks to quantify how drugs and diseases interact to aid in efficient and effective drug development and regulatory decisions

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• The Orlando campus of the College of Pharmacy’s entry-level professional degree program, which will house 200 students seeking the doctor of pharmacy degree

The center will extend UF’s research enterprise to the Orlando area and promote collaboration among researchers at UF and Sanford-Burnham. Their goal is to make fundamental medical research in cancer, diabetes and other diseases available to patients in clinical settings.

The center also will give the university a strong presence in the growing medical complex at Lake Nona, which includes the UCF College of Medicine and Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, the Nemours Children’s Hospital, the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the M.D. Anderson Center Research Institute.

The center is expected to be completed in summer 2012.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Contact Steve Orlando, director, UF News Bureau, 352-392-0186 or sfo@ufl.edu.