Center for Predictive Medicine
A conceptual rendering of U of L's Center for Predictive Medicine by consultant CUH2A.
Larger view
Lab construction has passed the halfway mark
The University of Louisville has passed the halfway point on building its Center for Predictive Medicine and is on schedule to have the facility up and running by early 2009.
No significant problems have arisen since work began on the Level 3 Regional Biosafety Lab last April, UofL officials said at a March 20 forum in Founders Union Hall on Shelby Campus.
“Our contractor has finished a good bit of the exterior and is now working on the interior,” said Dr. Manuel Martinez-Maldonado, UofL’s executive vice president for research and the scientist in charge of the lab.
“The concrete slab floor has been laid, the second-floor with its major mechanical and backup systems is moving along and much of the masonry work has been completed,” Martinez said.
Messer, a Cincinnati-based contractor that specializes in complex commercial construction, is building the facility.
At the forum, university officials showed a three-minute video tour of the lab narrated by Justin Keeton, Messer’s senior project manager. The video showed how work is progressing both inside and outside the building.
In other news, Martinez reported that a new traffic light on Hurstbourne Lane directly across from Dorsey Place neighborhood went up Feb. 28.
“We think our neighbors are really going to appreciate this new stoplight, which should relieve some long-standing traffic problems for them.”
UofL’s research lab, being built on a 4.2-acre site at the northeast corner of its 240-acre Shelby Campus, is one of 13 such labs being built throughout the country with funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Federal health reviewers reported last winter that UofL’s lab will have no significant impact on people, animals or plants in the environment.
Researchers at the lab will work to develop vaccines and other countermeasures to “detect, prevent and treat emerging infectious diseases and prepare for natural or man-induced outburst of epidemics,” Martinez said.
“The need for more study in this area is becoming more critical every day,” he said. “Today, we’re dealing not only with SARS and antibiotic-resistant TB but the spread of dengue fever, which used to be a problem only in tropical areas, and we’re seeing people die from MRSA, a highly-resistant staph bacteria.”
Last fall the NIH awarded an additional $375,000 grant to UofL which the university has matched with $125,000. The money is being used to buy a powerful micro-imaging scanner for rodents, Martinez said.
“This machine incorporates three types of scanning in one machine,” Martinez said. “We’ll able to see what infection does to organs in its earliest stages and follow its progress in mice and rats, which will help us know what to expect if a similar disease develops in people.”
The university began a national search for a scientific director for the lab in 2007 and hopes to hire one by fall, Martinez said. After the director is hired, he or she will enlist current UofL faculty members and recruit five new faculty members, all of whom will collaborate on research at the facility.
For more information, call 502-852-1113.
