New LEED Certified Duke Cancer Center Opens

The new Duke Cancer Center recently opened its doors to patients in February, according to a Duke University news article. The $235 million facility has been added to Duke University’s extensive list of LEED certified buildings. The environmentally-friendly features that helped the Duke Cancer Center achieve this certification include sustainable methods of energy use and transportation options. The center features large windows to let in natural sunlight, a rooftop garden, bike racks and showers for those who ride a bicycle to the center and occupancy sensors throughout the Duke Cancer Center that automatically turn lights off when a room is empty.

Another environmentally-friendly feature of the Duke Cancer Center is a large cistern that was created during the building’s construction. Located under the lawn between the Cancer Center, School of Nursing and Duke Clinic, the cistern is able to hold 80,000 gallons of rain water, which can be used for the irrigation of trees and plants.

"From a clinical standpoint, we wanted to make the design to be as welcoming of an environment as possible," said Shawn Subasic, director for the Duke Medical Center's facility construction, design and planning office. "All the natural lighting of the building and garden areas were a deliberate, holistic approach to achieving LEED certification and creating amenities to benefit patients."

Duke Cancer Center

Image courtesy of Duke University

According to a Duke Health webpage, the Duke Cancer Center is also home to a number of state-of-the-art treatment care amenities for patients. Visitors to the new Cancer Center will be sure to notice some of the following modern features:

• Spacious infusion rooms where patients can either sit with others or be treated in private
• The Specialty Pharmacy, located on the main level, which specializes in prescriptions for solid organ transplant patients. The pharmacy also sells a number of common over-the-counter medications.
• Bernstein Family Garden, a rooftop garden area where patients can undergo chemotherapy in an outdoor green space
• Large, comfortable waiting areas
• A café catering healthy food with cooking demonstrations from time to time.
• The Quiet Room, located on the main level, which can be used for meditation and  reflection
• The Belk Boutique, also located on the main level, where visitors can buy head coverings and discuss the details of post-surgical clothing

In addition to funding its new $235 million Cancer Center, Duke University has a great deal of funding available for life science sales. The NSF gave Duke University $46 million in research funding in 2012. Among the life science programs awarded funding were macrosystem biology, physiology and structural systems, developmental systems, systematics and biodiversity science, bio informatics, evolutionary processes, genetic mechanisms, cellular dynamics and function, population and community ecology, neural systems, and ecosystem science. In addition to receiving NSF funding, Duke University also received $342.7 million in research funding from the NIH in 2012. For a full list of life science departments receiving funding, please visit the NIH website.

If you are a biotechnology vendor or lab supplier interested in networking within the life science sales market at Duke University, Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. invites you to attend our annual Duke BioResearch Product Faire™ Event held on May 9^th, 2013. Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is a full-service life science marketing and events-planning company that has been organizing university trade shows for 20 years. If you are interested in learning about a life science sales market closer to home, we encourage you to check out our 2013 calendar of events. For more funding statistics at Duke University, click on the button below.