Construction work will begin May 1 on the $30 million laboratory and administrative building of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute on the campus of West Virginia University .
�€?The construction fence is up, and excavation will start Monday,�€? said Robert M. D’Alessandri, BRNI president. �€?This is the realization of a dream for people across the state and across the country, and a day that we are all planning to celebrate.�€?
BRNI research has been in progress for several years in labs on the WVU campus and in a Johns Hopkins University research facility near Washington , D.C. The new facility will have sufficient space for up to 40 research scientists, and up to 200 total employees.
The facility will house programs studying diseases that result in memory loss, such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia founded BRNI in memory of his mother, who died of Alzheimer’s disease.
WVU issued a �€?notice to proceed�€? to the Mosites Construction Co. on April 25. Mosites was low bidder for the $20.4 million general construction contract on the building.
According to the agreement with the company, the building is scheduled to be substantially complete by Nov. 1, 2007, and ready for occupancy by the end of 2007.
Funding for construction of the research center, and essential equipment, includes a $19.6 million Federal grant, obtained with the assistance of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, and $10 million in West Virginia state economic development funds.
The 85,000 square-foot building was designed by Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott of Boston, and will include laboratories, procedure rooms and office space.
“BRNI’s primary mission is comprehensive molecular neuroscience of cognitive functions, particularly memory, and the development of drugs to treat cognitive disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s disease,�€? said Dr. Daniel Alkon, BRNI scientific director. �€?We seek to accelerate the transfer of basic neuroscience discoveries into practical treatments for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other neurologic and psychiatric disorders.”
More information about the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute is available atwww.brni.org.