Funds are requested to renovate 15,890 sq. ft. of research space and shell space in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Building on the campus of the UMBC. The renovation will consist of Analytical, Synthetic and Biochemistry wet laboratory areas and laboratory support space, research offices, shared instrument rooms and the enlargement and upgrade of glass shop. The original building, occupied in 1970, is currently under a major capital renovation. The spaces in this application are not included in this project. They have been renovated """"""""as needed"""""""" using facility renewal funds and as dictated by changing teaching and research methods. The design of the laboratories was never thought out in respect to the facility as a whole. Benches are laid out haphazardly, with little or no flexibility. Common use facilities are currently where space permitted, making the areas less than optimal. Although a vast number of the Faculty are involved in Biochemistry, there is a single clean bench in the building, no proper tissue culture facilities. In vitro studies are carried out in laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAIAD); National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) or the UMBC. The long-term objective of this renovation is to tie these areas into the central systems being renovated, provide centrally located tissue culture and shared facilities, along with flexible laboratory modules for the Department Faculty. Research in this space will focus on the development of antineoplastic and antiviral drugs, mechanisms of carcinogenesis and oxygen carrying blood substitutes for emergency transfusions.
