Nearly 100 administrators, faculty, students, and alumni gathered at a ceremonial groundbreaking on April 26 to celebrate the construction of a facility that will launch a new era for collaborative neuroscience research at the University of Miami.
The new 37,700-square-foot neuroscience building will create an interactive hub for interdisciplinary research based on neurological imaging and health research adjacent to the Cox Science Center on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus. “Today is a great day for our scientists,” said Leonidas Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “This is the first new building for the College of Arts and Sciences in 30 years.”
Scientists from the college’s biology and psychology departments will collaborate with scientists from the Miller School of Medicine in the cutting-edge neuroscience facility, which will house advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging equipment and a photon-based microscope that allows scientists to observe living proteins at work.
The building and its equipment will enable neuroscientists to study how molecular changes in the nervous system relate to behavior and to analyze molecular patterns in the nervous system that can predict successful treatment of neurological diseases, said Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc. “The research programs in the facility will contribute to this effort by studying model systems in animals and correlate human behavior with functional changes in different regions of the brain,” he noted.
LeBlanc praised faculty and administrators for seeking out the $14.8 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and awarded by the National Institutes of Health that funded the building, which will be built to LEED Silver green-building standards.
The facility was designed with input from working scientists, with an eye toward creating collaborative space to accommodate research at all academic levels and better accommodate patients, said Kathryn Tosney, professor and chair of the Department of Biology.
UM’s investment in the building’s technology and lab space is already attracting leading faculty, and the facility promises a bright future for neuroscience research in South Florida, said Rod Wellens, chair of the Department of Psychology.
The neuroscience building is scheduled to open in spring of 2013.