NIH $5.9 million stimulus award granted to BU Chemistry
This award will reinforce our Life Science research infrastructure on the Charles River Campus by renovating space on the 4th floor in the East Wing of the Metcalf Science and Engineering Center Department of Chemistry space. Started in April, 2010, the one-year effort will renovate 6,700 square feet of laboratory and office space to create four laboratory modules for state-of-the-art research in synthetic organic chemistry and supporting laboratory space for analytical chemistry. The flexible laboratory layout will enable technology-facilitated medicinal chemistry. Complementary faculty and meeting space will be developed to fully support real and virtual conferencing that facilitates engagement and collaboration among research scientists on the Charles River and Medical campuses as well as sites outside of BU. These renovations of four research laboratories will provide the infrastructure for the chemical sciences to realize BU’s biomedical research vision, which has been constrained by outdated and inflexible infrastructure available in the Metcalf Center for Science and Engineering (renovated in 1983). It will bolster BU’s leadership position in translational science by providing a robust environment for multidisciplinary research efforts bridging chemistry and biology. This NIH facilities renovation award is the first federally funded renovation grant on the Charles River Campus in BU’s history.