The Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building on the East Campus of the University of Colorado Boulder is already welcoming researchers to their new labs and offices, and on April 26 there will be an official dedication ceremony for the 330,000sf innovative life science facility. While the university is still waiting for state funding to construct a fifth wing for teaching space, the current building is scheduled to be fully occupied by June. As we reported in a widely-read earlier blog on this much-anticipated research complex, one of the key tenants will be the Biofrontiers Institute, formerly the CIMB. Joining them are the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Division of Biochemistry.
[Biochemist Hubert Yen, courtesy of the Biofrontiers Institute at CU-Boulder]
The new biotechnology building boasts a lot of square footage, but it's not monolithic. Rather, it's organized into "neighborhoods" and wings, united by common "main street-like" central corridors. It looks and feels more like a complex of smaller buildings (see image below), with inviting stop-and-chat spaces as well as a 200-seat auditorium. The goal is to get researchers to interact, and not just with each other. The facility will also make space "available to industry at competitive rates," according to a building brochure.
The Caruthers Biotechnology Building will house these resources for its public and private tenants:
- Next-gen DNA sequencing and bioinformatics
- Nuclear magnetic resonance
- Biomolecular mass-spectrometry and proteomics
- Flow cytometry
- Electron paramagnetic resonance
- Tissue culture and bioimaging
- X-Ray crystallography
- Vivarium
- Chemical and biological engineering machine room
[The New Caruthers Biotechnology Building, courtesy of CU-Boulder]
Another impressive science lab facility to open its doors recently is the X-Wing addition to the JILA Building. JILA is a joint research institute of CU-Boulder and the NIST, formed 50 years ago to study atomic, molecular and optical physics. The new six-story wing adds 56,065gsf of workspace, including laboratory space in the basement and first floor. Growth in the number of graduate students, postdocs and scientists makes the addition particularly welcome, along with the improvements that come with a state-of-the-art building. One researcher put it this way:
“With the laboratory environment so much better controlled -- and I'm talking about vibrations, room temperature, electromagnetic noise, more stable cooling water and power, everything -- our researchers can concentrate on what really matters, the experiments themselves,” said Nobel laureate Eric Cornell, chair of JILA. “Everything we could do in the old labs, we’ll be able to do a little, maybe a lot, better in the new labs.”
Not only has JILA produced 3 Nobel Prize winners just since 2001, but JILA and the CU Dept. of Physics are currently tied with MIT as the top graduate programs for atomic, molecular, and optical physics, according to the most recent US News & World Report rankings. JILA will hold a 50th birthday celebration this summer; it opened its last major new facility on its 25th birthday in 1987.
If you are a researcher, lab manager, purchasing agent, or biotechnology equipment supplier, you won't want to miss Biotechnology Calendar Inc.'s 14th Annual Boulder BioResearch Product Faire™ event held on the CU-Boulder campus. This popular and well-attended life science expo will be held on June 13 in 2012. For more information, click the button below, and note our other Colorado events also coming in June:
Other Biotechnology Calendar Inc. events this summer in Colorado include:
•2nd Annual National Jewish Health BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line Event™ trade show, June 11, 2012
•3nd Annual Denver BioResearch Product Faire™, CSU Anshutz Medical Campus event June 12, 2012
•2nd Annual Foothills Campus BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line Event™ trade show, CSU Ft. Collins/Foothills June 15, 2012
•5th Annual Ft. Collins BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line Event™ trade show at the CSU Ft. Collins Campus June 14, 2012