UNMC likely will break ground late this summer or early this fall on a second 10-level research tower.
On Friday, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents unanimously approved construction of the facility, which is presently being called the Research Center of Excellence II.
The 252,179 gross square feet building will be nearly identical to the Durham Research Center, which opened in 2003. As with the Durham Research Center, funding for the $74 million second research tower will come primarily from private fundraising efforts. Completion of the second tower is expected by winter of 2008.
Featuring 98 state-of-the-art laboratories, as well as office space for investigators and laboratory support space, the Research Center of Excellence II will be built only a few yards south of the Durham Research Center on the northwest corner of Durham Research Plaza (formerly 45th Street) and Emile Street. The two research towers will be connected with a covered passageway.
Research activities within the second research tower will be multidisciplinary, grouped around UNMC priority areas, including cancer, biosecurity, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal and liver diseases, developmental biology, genetics and molecular genetics, neurobiology, and organ transplantation biology.
Most of the 98 laboratories would be dedicated to research in the College of Medicine, the Eppley Cancer Center, the College of Pharmacy, and to support the operations of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory and the University of Nebraska Center for Biosecurity to advance Nebraska’s efforts in bioterrorism preparedness.