USC Expecting New Biomedical Research Center in 2017

In 2017, the University of Southern California will be a little bit larger, thanks to the addition of a new research center. Made possible by a $50 million donation from Gary and Alya Michelson, the USC Michelson Center for Convergence Bioscience will be the largest building on the USC campus (once completed) and will foster collaboration between researchers from different science disciplines. 

The main aim of the new building is to create a place where researchers from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering can work together to find cures for diseases in a fast way. The scientists and engineers will work together to create new biomedical devices that will help save lives. (Image on right courtesy of Wikimedia).

Faculty members from both of the USC departments that will be involved in the new center are excited about the possibilities that the collaborative work will bring. Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering said that “USC Michelson will be a world-class center of the accelerating convergence between the biosciences and engineering. Its outstanding faculty will conduct cutting-edge bioscience and bio-engineering research that will lead to breakthrough innovations for advancing human health.”

The new USC Michelson Center for Convergence Bioscience will be a 190,000 square-foot building and will consist of enough new research labs to house somewhere between 20-30 principle investigators, and hundreds of office staff, researchers, and students will work with the building's PI's.  

Along with new research labs, some other new facilities that will be included within the building are:

• Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis
• Nanofabrication Facility
• Microscopy Imaging Technology

The University of Southern California is a world-class, well-known research institution that is constantly making achievements in the life sciences. USC has a long-standing commitment to biomedical research and with the help of research that will occur in the Center for Convergence of Biosciences, USC will help Los Angeles grow as a place for biomedical research. 

Along with biomedical research, USC scientists tackle tough problems in all fields of the life sciences, and receive an immense amount of funding to help with this work. Some of the current research projects happening at USC include: 

• The University of Southern California is to receive part of a $35 million award to engage in high-risk research which focuses on how complex marine microbial systems interact and change over time.
• Researchers at the University of Southern California recently received $10.3 million in life science funding to help support the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
• A USC researcher is to receive $5.7 million from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to help move promising stem cell-based therapies from the laboratory research phase to actual clinical trials.

With funding coming in to help construct new buildings and support ongoing research projects, USC is strong marketplace for lab supply companies to find new sales leads. Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. produces a semiannual BioResearch Product Faire™ Event at USC, one in Spring and one in Fall, that gives USC researchers the chance to find new products and technologies that will help them in their labs. Lab suppliers have the chance to meet with these researchers face-to-face in an intimate and professional environment to help researchers find the products they need. 

At last years two events, more than 400 researchers came to the event. Nearly a quarter of these attendees were decision makers, and the rest were all involved in the research process. 

In 2015, events will be held on April 3 and October 21. Both researchers and lab supply companies are invited to attend this popular event. 

If you are either with a lab supply company or are a researcher, visit the appropriate button below to learn more about participating in this popular event. 

Visit the event calendar here to learn about the more than 50 events scheduled for 2015.