Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., has opened a 37,000-square-foot facility to house research space for its school of pharmacy.
The university says the Pharmaceutical Research Building provides space for 14 principal investigators and more than 80 graduate students and research assistants in the Harrison School of Pharmacy (HSOP).
“Laboratory research at HSOP continues to grow and every day becomes a bigger part of what we do here,” says former Dean R. Lee Evans. “We have some of the finest research scientists in the country that have helped our research and graduate programs grow exponentially over just the past few years.”
The addition of so much space enables researchers to work and collaborate in new ways, the university says. On each floor, several faculty members share a single, large, laboratory space. The absence of walls in the research space will facilitate collaboration.
“The first floor of the building contains a vivarium and the second floor houses the Auburn University Specialized Pharmaceutical and Experimental Center for Translational Research and Analysis (SPECTRA),” says David Riese, associate dean for research and graduate programs. “These resources allow researchers to more easily and efficiently incorporate the cutting edge in vivo studies needed for research projects to be competitive for extramural support.”
The building is situated within Auburn’s new Health Sciences Sector between the new Auburn School of Nursing and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. Officials say the location will help facilitate even more collaboration among the programs.
“The new building has state-of-the-art research facilities, graduate student office space, and spaces to foster research collaborations,” says Riese. “Combined with the high level of research activity that will be housed in the new building and the campus-wide resources available at Auburn, we will have one of the best environments in the Southeast to pursue graduate study in the Pharmaceutical Sciences.”
Previously, Drug Discovery and Development faculty were working in a 40-year-old building that lacked many of the features of modern laboratories. The additional space and infrastructure enables faculty members to develop their own research programs while giving the school the tools to be more competitive when recruiting faculty.
