This application seeks federal matching funds to complete the construction of current shell space on the seventh floor in the Medical Research Facility (MRF) of the University of Pittsburgh, which adjoins the Biomedical Science Tower (BST). The MRF and the BST together comprise the major majority of research space at the institution. The requested funds will permit up-fitting of approximately 20,000 gross square feet of space for laboratories which will house the core faculty of the basic and clinical research programs of the University of Pittsburgh Arthritis Research Center, the recent recipient of a Multipurpose of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center grant from NIAMS. Providing this space for the Arthritis Research Center will bring together basic and clinical investigators from two Departments (Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery) will common interests in arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases and complementary research training. The mission of the Center is to facilitate close interactions between laboratory and clinical investigators to develop and then efficiently explore innovate approaches to the treatment of arthritis. A major emphasis of this group is the clinical application of cytokine-based gene therapy and the first clinical trial of gene therapy for a non-lethal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, is currently being performed at the University of Pittsburgh by this group. At present, the laboratories and offices of these investigators are dispersed throughout the campus, significantly hampering interactions, and suitable space does not currently exist for the creation of this multi- disciplinary research center. Space for clinical research is particularly limited and contiguous research space is not available for recruitment of additional faculty (for which funds are available) that are necessary to expand the programs of the Center. This latter problem, namely a shortage of available research space, is negative impacting programmatic development in other important areas including an Infectious Disease Research Center with a focus on the pathogenesis of acute inflammation and novel approaches to HIV therapy and a gene-mapping program in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology designed to investigate the etiologies of inflammatory bowel disease and pancreatitis. The proposed facility will satisfy these critical needs of the institution by providing new space for the Arthritis Research Center with room for integration and expansion of its research programs and by making available the space vacated by these investigators to the developing programs of the Infectious Diseases Research Center and the Division of Gastroenterology.
