? The University of Washington School of Medicine requests funding for a major renovation of space on three floors of the H-wing and part of the third floor of the G-wing of the Magnuson Health Science Building (16,516 net square feet). The space will be used for disease-related basic biomedical research conducted by faculty members of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics and for training of the next generations of biomedical scientists (PhD students and postdoctoral fellows). As part of a major renewal project, the Department of Physiology & Biophysics has been assigned new space that will increase its space allotment by almost 20%, bring the Department research laboratories into contiguous locations (rather than the dispersed arrangement that has limited scientific discussions and sharing of instrumentation), provide new opportunities for collaborative interactions in both research and education, and enhance the ability of the Department to recruit the best new faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The H-wing was constructed in 1950 and is now wholly unsuitable for modern biomedical research, both in infrastructure and in physical layout. This application requests matching funds for renovation that will meet special needs of researchers in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, considered by many standards to be one of the premier physiology departments in the nation. As the Department continues to fill faculty positions as a natural consequence of retirements, modern space will be essential to compete for the best new faculty. The new space arrangement will create a more vibrant, interactive and collaborative research environment for our faculty, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. ? ?
