With the assistance of the National Center of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services and funds awarded under the American Recovery Act Limited Competition: Extramural Research Facilities Improvement Program (C06), the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Medicine proposes to renovate 20,000 gross square feet of lab, office, and conference research space on the eighth floor of the Frank C. Bressler Research Building (BRB) for the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center (UMGCC). At the present time, the facilities and equipment on the eighth floor of BRB are significantly outdated and unable to support cutting-edge cancer research. UMGCC investigators from the Experimental Therapeutics, Hormone Responsive Cancers, and Molecular and Structural Biology (MSB) Programs currently occupy the 9th and 10th floors of BRB. The goal of the proposed renovation is to consolidate a focused interactive group of basic investigators in the MSB Program who share overlapping research interests in the area of cellular stress responses, structural biology, and structure-based drug design. The co-location of research space will promote consolidate key collaborating investigators from the MSB Program in state-of-the art research space, thereby promoting existing and new interactions among this group and with other UMGCC investigators on the 9th and 10th floors of BRB. The proximity of these investigators will also enhance interactions with and utilization of UMGCC Shared Services, including the proposed High-Throughput Screening Lab. Thus, we envision the availability of newly renovated space will dramatically enhance UMGCC's abilities to address the unmet national need for novel and less toxic therapies for cancer patients by promoting multidisciplinary translational cancer research. The UMB SOM anticipates this project will be certified as a LEEDS silver project by incorporating sustainable methods in the design and construction of this renovation. Furthermore, approximately 120 new American jobs will be created over the course of this project and between 8 and 12 jobs will be maintained that otherwise will be eliminated. Pending approvals, and delivery of materials this project can begin as early as December 2009 and be completed by August 2011.
