New UCLA neuroscience research facility comes step closer to reality.Santa Monica-based architectural firm An architectural firm is a company which employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture. History Architects (master builders) have existed since early in recorded history. The earliest recorded architects include Imhotep (c. Lee, Burkhart, Liu has been awarded the contract for the design and construction of the new Molecular Neuroscience Research Center at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX . Scheduled for completion in 1997, the facility will include 27 research modules and spaces for contemplation and state-of-the-art ancillary services. According to David Meyer, associate dean of Basic Science Programs at the UCLA School of Medicine, the new building -- the first School of Medicine Building to be initiated on the campus this decade -- is expected to cost between $32 million and $35 million. Construction is slated to begin in the summer of 1995. The Molecular Neuroscience Research Center programs will explore neurological diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonism, degenerative brain disorder first described by the English surgeon James Parkinson in 1817. When there is no known cause, the disease usually appears after age 40 and is referred to as Parkinson's disease. , Huntington's disease Huntington's disease, hereditary, acute disturbance of the central nervous system usually beginning in middle age and characterized by involuntary muscular movements and progressive intellectual deterioration; formerly called Huntington's chorea. and Lou Gehrig's disease Lou Geh·rig's disease n. See amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. , as well as psychiatric diseases including schizophrenia, manic depression and drug addiction. Lee, Burkhart, Liu, in association with Venturi venturi a tube with a decrease in the inside diameter that is used to increase the flow velocity of the fluid and thereby cause a pressure drop; used to measure the flow velocity (a venturimeter) or to draw another fluid into the stream. Scott Brown & Associates of Philadelphia, will provide design services for the 98,000-square-foot academic and research facility. The six-story research center will provide sophisticated and flexible laboratory space for programs in molecular neurobiology Neurobiology Study of the development and function of the nervous system, with emphasis on how nerve cells generate and control behavior. The major goal of neurobiology is to explain at the molecular level how nerve cells differentiate and develop their and human genetics Human genetics A discipline concerned with genetically determined resemblances and differences among human beings. Technological advances in the visualization of human chromosomes have shown that abnormalities of chromosome number or structure are surprisingly . "The design intent is played out on two levels," said Kenneth S. Liu, of Lee, Burkhart, Liu. "The building completes an urban plaza with the neighboring MacDonald Research Laboratory and will serve as a landmark at the main entrance to the campus on Westwood Boulevard." The facility also achieves the primary goal of laboratory design which, VSB (1) (VME Subsystem Bus) An auxiliary "backdoor" protocol on the VME bus that allows high-speed transfer between devices. It was faster than the main bus before the 64-bit implementation arrived. & Associates' Robert Venturi noted, "will encourage concentration and communication within a generic loft form offering flexibility to accommodate core research activity as well as incidental interaction." Operations scattered According to Dr. Allan Tobin, professor of neuroscience and neurology at the UCLA School of Medicine, and chairman of the UCLA Interdepartmental in·ter·de·part·men·tal adj. Involving or representing different departments, as of a business, an academic institution, or a government: "the petty interdepartmental squabbling that surrounds the making of . . . Program for Neuroscience, there are currently 16 different departments scattered throughout the university and the UCLA School of Medicine. He noted that the new center will consolidate current staff and attract new researchers who will bring their individual perspectives to the table, "to try and form a new view of the way the brain works and what goes wrong in neurological and psychiatric diseases." According to Tobin, the research center will house two sets of personnel -- those using the latest techniques in molecular biology molecular biology, scientific study of the molecular basis of life processes, including cellular respiration, excretion, and reproduction. The term molecular biology was coined in 1938 by Warren Weaver, then director of the natural sciences program at the Rockefeller to study the brain's workings, and those using the latest in genetic techniques to study how the genes affect the development and functioning of the brain as well as other systems in the body. The new facility, he said, "is part of an attempt to develop stronger interaction between clinical approaches to neurological and psychiatric diseases. The clinical concerns of neurologists and psychiatrists and basic science at the cutting edge of technology include molecular biology and genetics." Time is ripe More importantly, he noted that the center will allow the UCLA School of Medicine to attract outstanding new investigators, who in turn, it is hoped, will attract both government funding and private contributors. "We think that UCLA is now poised to become a world center for the study of these diseases," said Tobin. He added, "We'd like to make people aware of this unique enterprise and opportunity for UCLA. The time is particularly ripe right now because of technical advances in molecular biology including information from the Human Gene Project -- a huge government initiative to understand all of the genes that make human beings human." A huge amount of this information is becoming available, he added, and with computers scanning this information, there will be new inventions that will lead to new diagnostics and treatments for diseases. "I think the UCLA center will make use of this kind of information to further advance our understanding," said Dr. Tobin. |
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