Medical Center receives $3 million grant

The Medical Center has received a $3 million grant from New York State to help establish its new research institute. The grant was announced on January 29 in Albany by Gov. George Pataki.

The research institute, which will be named the University of Rochester Institute of Biomedical Sciences, is the centerpiece of a 10-year $400 million plan to expand the medical research program. Approximately 70 medical scientists and 400 technicians and support personnel will be hired for the institute, which will complement the Medical Center's existing research programs. The expansion represents the largest recruitment effort at the University since the School of Medicine and Dentistry was founded in 1924.

Six research centers will form the institute: the Center for Aging and Developmental Biology, the Center for Cancer Biology, the Center for Cardiovascular Research, the Center for Human Genetics and Molecular Pediatric Diseases, the Center for Oral Biology, and the Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology.

In each of the institute's research centers, scientists will be engaged in a two-part research strategy. First, they will study the workings of the human body at the most basic level (that of molecules and genes) to learn how the body's normal function is sabotaged by diseases such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and AIDS. Then, the scientists will attempt to devise new approaches to treat the diseases--or to prevent them from striking altogether.

The institute will be located in the four-story, 240,000-square-foot building that's under construction at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Lattimore Road. The building is scheduled to be completed in July.