What the Research Park Complex Is

Architect’s drawing of the Biomedical Research and Education Facility (BREF) viewed from the southwest. Completion is scheduled for 2009.

Cost:

$161.5 million

Location:

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Research Park Complex sits on 7.5 acres at the corner of Cambridge Street and East Road. The site is part of a 100-acre development of UT Health Science Center and the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center that also is home to the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging Research (CABIR).

Building complex:

The 393,000 gross-square-foot complex will be home to three independent programs – the new Dental Branch, the Neuroscience Building and the Biomedical Research and Education Facility (BREF).

Dental Branch Replacement Building:

The UT Research Park Complex will total 393,000 gross square feet and comprise three independent programs functionally connected into one facility: the Dental Branch Replacement Building, the Neuroscience Building, and the Biomedical Research and Education Facility.

Estimated cost of the new Dental Branch is about $90 million, depending on the equipment, technology and other requirements for the facility. In addition to a recent $1 million private gift, the building fund has a combined commitment of $60 million from state Tuition Revenue Bonds and $18 million in UT System Permanent University Funds. The rest will come from foundations, corporations and individuals. The new Dental Branch is expected to be completed in 2010.

Neuroscience Building:

Collaborative neuroscience research involving some 250 faculty, fellows, residents and staff of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UT Medical School at Houston will be a component of the Research Park Complex. The Neuroscience Building will replace the 45-year-old Mental Sciences Institute at 1300 Moursund. Its expected cost is $22.9 million.

Biomedical Research and Education Facility (BREF):

Sharing a lighthearted moment during the event are, from left, Peter Davies, M.D., Ph.D., UT Health Science Center executive vice president for research; Thomas Caskey, M.D., CEO of The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM); UT System Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Kenneth Shine, M.D.; and Paul Simmons, Ph.D., director of the Center for Stem Cell Research at the IMM.

The BREF will occupy 84,000 gross square feet of the Research Park Complex and will primarily contain research and laboratories for the study of adult stem cells. Exploration of stem cell discoveries and new cell therapies with collaborators such as the Texas Heart Institute and M. D. Anderson’s scientists will require multiple tissue culture laboratories. The total cost of the BREF is projected at $41.1 million.

Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging Research (CABIR):

The 315,000-square-foot CABIR is another collaboration between M. D. Anderson and the health science center, in cooperation with GE Healthcare and the Texas Enterprise Fund. The facility will include multi-technology translational imaging, synthetic and analytical chemistry laboratories, and production of clinical grade imaging agents. CABIR is scheduled for completion in late 2009.

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