This proposal seeks matching funds to renovate space suitable to house the research, research training and research support activities of the recently established Penn Center for Bioinformatics in a consolidated physical location at the School of Medicine. The Center is jointly sponsored by the Schools of Medicine (SOM), Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Arts and Sciences (SAS). Drs. G. Christian Overton, Director, Susan Davidson, Co-Director, and Warren Ewens, Educational Director, provide the scientific leadership for the Center. The Center facility will occupy one and half floors (approximately 12000 net square feet) of Blockley Hall---an SOM building---and consist of high-quality research computer laboratories, a high-speed tele/data network, small breakout/meeting rooms, open carrels with workstations, a seminar room seating up to 50 people, and a small library. Users of the facility will be divided between faculty with primary research space in the Center and faculty with secondary research space in the Center and primary research space in their home departments. Graduate and post-graduate students and research staff working on interdisciplinary projects in bioinformatics will be housed within the facility, as well as the administrative staff of the Center. The facility will also serve as a resource for biomedical researchers throughout the University who have need of high-level bioinformatics support. The proposed facility addresses the Center's requirement for space suitable for research activities in computational biosciences that are currently lacking at the University.
