of space allocated for the U54 Interdisciplinary Center for Male Contraceptive Research and Drug Discovery: New Biomedical Research Center (BRC) will house all U54 Research Project Principal Investigators and two support Core Units. The University of Kansas Medical Center will complete construction of a new $52 million research building containing 179,582 Net Assignable Square Feet (NASF). Occupancy of this building is schedule to begin in October, 2006 and be completed by December, 2006 and will include laboratory, office, and research support space for all of the U54 Research Project Principal Investigators as well as the Administrative and Imaging Cores of the U54 Center. These will all be located on the 33,294 square foot 3rd floor of the BRC (see Figure 1, next page). This floor will also be occupied by both the Interdisciplinary Center for Male Contraceptive Research and Drug Development and the Center for Reproductive Sciences, and thus represents a highly interactive, collaborative, and supportive environment for conducting the research on male contraceptive development. The individual labs in the BRC will be well equipped;there are no requests for equipment since the university has provided new equipment for all labs associated with this U54. Where appropriate, investigators have centralized equipment from their own labs into the core in order to reduce duplication and costs. However, most of the equipment in the cores (laboratories and administrative) was provided by the Dean's office of the School of Medicine and by matching of previous NIH grants. In addition, a $27 million gift from the Hall Family Foundation to the University of Kansas Medical Center provided for the purchase of new and replacement equipment for all of the investigators and cores moving into the BRC. The Drug, Discovery, Design &Synthesis Core (DDS Core) is housed in facilities at the University of Kansas-Lawrence and at the University of Minnesota. These are the same core facilities that are currently being utilized in our multi-campus NICHD contract """"""""Synthesis and Testing of Non-hormonal Non-Steroidal Male Contraceptive Agents."""""""" The location of the facility at University of Kansas-Lawrence is about 30 miles from the University of Kansas Medical Center. During the current and previous contract on male contraceptive development, this distance provides no barrier to the smooth conduct of the research between the two campuses. Due to OSHA regulations, compounds submitted by the Drug, Discovery, Design &Synthesis core to investigators at University of Kansas Medical Center must be transported by commercial carriers (such as FEDEX overnight). This procedure will continue in the U54 center, as well as between the facilities at the University of Minnesota and the other campuses in the Center. Other administrative arrangements to ensure good communications between the core components and the rest of the center include: 1) A secure web-based data repository for chemical, physical, and biological data. 2) Drs. Tash, Georg, and Schonbrunn will be meet face-to-face at least every six months (additional travel costs will be covered by alternate funding sources) to make sure the core needs are being met smoothly. 3) Finally, all seminars and meetings involving center investigators will be available by web video conference at both campuses. The Drug Development Core (DD Core) is located in administrative space in facilities at both the University of Kansas Medical Center and at the University of Kansas-Lawrence. This core is probably unique in an academic center. The core is headed by Scott Weir, Pharm.D, Ph.D.. Dr. Weir's specific areas of expertise are in clinical pharmacology and developing innovative approaches in lead optimization and early drug development. Dr. Weir has developed drug products across a wide range of therapeutic areas. The DD Core facility at KUMC is located across the street from the BRC, where the research project labs and Administrative and Imaging cores are located.
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