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By Tim Stoddard

	The new Life Science and Engineering Building on Cummington Street, scheduled for completion by July 2005, will house faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences departments of biology and chemistry, the College of Engineering department of biomedical engineering, and the University's Bioinformatics Graduate Program. "We'll have a fertile mix of chemists, biologists, and biomedical engineers," says Charles DeLisi, Arthur G Metcalf Professor of Science and Engineering and senior associate provost of bioscience. "The new building is an expression of the vital work that is going on across disciplines at the University, and is designed to facilitate further collaboration among faculty and students from many departments in engineering and the life sciences." Image courtesy of Cannon Design

In early April 2003, demolition crews cleared away the defunct Nickelodeon Theatre at 24 Cummington St. to make room for the new $84 million Life Science and Engineering Building. The 10-story, 184,000-square-foot building will house faculty from the CAS departments of biology and chemistry, ENG’s department of biomedical engineering, and the University’s Bioinformatics Graduate Program. If all goes according to plan, the building’s 41 laboratories, 45 offices, conference rooms, and 150-seat seminar room should be completed by July 2005.

Over the past decade, the University has built upon its considerable strength in biomedical and genetic engineering, fostering interdisciplinary research in the biosciences and launching programs in bioinformatics and nanotechnology. “There’s been tremendous growth in faculty collaborations over the past five years,” says Charles DeLisi, Arthur G. B. Metcalf Professor of Science and Engineering and senior associate provost for bioscience.

Carol Simpson, associate provost for research and graduate education, agrees, noting that the building’s design will especially benefit graduate students working on interdisciplinary projects with faculty advisors from different departments.

The new building will be organized by research interests, rather than traditional academic departments. “It’s our first opportunity on the Charles River Campus to design the occupancy of a building by ideas and areas of interest rather than by departmental affiliation,” says Dennis Berkey, University provost. “This will further encourage interdisciplinary and cross-departmental collaboration, providing a highly dynamic environment for student researchers as well as for faculty and research staff.”

“ It’s a big advantage for researchers to be connected by their research interests, rather than being segregated by department,” says Thomas Tullius, a CAS professor of chemistry and chairman of the department. “It catalyzes connections and collaborations that you wouldn’t have otherwise.”

The design of the new Life Science and Engineering Building has been largely guided by DeLisi and the chairmen of the three departments — biomedical engineering, chemistry, and biology — that will be moving into its offices and laboratories. “The building is designed to facilitate scientific interactions in similar areas,” says Kenneth Lutchen, an ENG professor of biomedical engineering and department chairman. “For example, one floor will position several neurobiology labs next to three BME faculty who work on neuroengineering.” The building will also house a new biomedical engineering center, occupying about two floors of space, funded by the University’s 2001 Whitaker Leadership Development Award.

Geoffrey Cooper, a CAS professor of biology and chairman of the department, says that many of the 14 biology faculty who will move into the new building will be located near colleagues in the bioinformatics program. “My lab is involved in experimental work in gene expression,” he says, “and our bioinformatics collaborator, Simon Kasif, who does computational analysis, will be working with us to identify the DNA sequences that control expression of genes.”

The chemistry department’s new Center for Chemical Methodology and Library Development will double in size when it moves to the new building. The center is developing a vast library of molecules that biologists, pharmacologists, chemists, and other researchers can use to better understand biological processes and to develop new drugs.

The building will also house a small ENG laboratory for fabricating silicon-based chips, which chemistry faculty use in a variety of applications. Also, says Tullius, “when the eight chemistry faculty move into their new labs, they’ll leave behind several recently renovated labs that will give us the opportunity to recruit maybe half a dozen new faculty.”

All the core faculty in the Bioinformatics Graduate Program, which DeLisi directs, will relocate to the new building. “We’ll have a fertile mix of chemists, biologists, and biomedical engineers,” DeLisi says. “Everybody in the building has common interests, and the 70 or 80 bioinformatics Ph.D. students diffused throughout the building will provide additional glue for interactions between faculty. We’ll see a lot of networking and a lot of collaboration with students working with faculty members from different disciplines.”

For building construction updates, see www.bu.edu/construction/projects/life/.

14 November 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations