BU Research website<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nFor decades, some of the most exciting research at Boston University has been unfolding in a row of buildings hidden on Cummington Mall, designed originally for making carriages instead of studying the life sciences.<\/p>\n
Now University President Robert A. Brown is giving science a more prominent address on the University\u2019s main thoroughfare. In late May or early summer 2015, at what is now a parking lot at 610 Commonwealth Avenue, BU will break ground for its new Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE), a $140 million, state-of-the-art, nine-story research facility that will bring together life scientists, engineers, and physicians from the Medical and Charles River Campuses. The building will be dedicated to systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroimaging, and biological design. With shared, flexible lab spaces, meeting rooms, and other common areas, it is being designed to encourage the kind of collaborative, interdisciplinary research that will be the hallmark of 21st-century science.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, many of the outstanding challenges in science lie at the boundaries between traditional disciplines or the unchartered spaces between them,\u201d says Brown. These unchartered spaces will be explored at CILSE, a place he says will foster \u201cmajor interdisciplinary research efforts led by faculty from many departments and schools, but with common interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
CILSE will be built adjacent to historic Morse Auditorium and is expected to be finished in late 2016 or early 2017. It will contain lab space for approximately 160 researchers, postdoctoral students, and staff, 270 graduate students, and additional space for future faculty. The architects are from Payette, a Boston firm that has built prizewinning science buildings for major research universities and other institutions around the world.<\/p>\n
The 170,000-square-foot building will house the Center for Systems Neuroscience, the Biological Design Center, the Center for Sensory Communication and Neuroengineering Technology, and the Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, with a 3 Tesla fMRI\u2014a fundamental tool for studying the brain\u2019s trillions of neural connections and how they relate to human behavior. The imaging technology will serve faculty from schools and departments across BU\u2019s sprawling neuroscience community\u2014and from other universities around Boston\u2014who study brain topics from how we learn, think, and remember to traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\nBarbara Shinn-Cunningham, a College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering. Photo by Vernon Doucette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIn the life sciences and engineering, we have world-class faculty. We need facilities to match,\u201d says Gloria Waters, vice president and associate provost for research. \u201cWe decided to invest in better lab space that would bring faculty together in a very unique and interdisciplinary environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Center for Sensory Communication and Neuroengineering Technology will be directed by Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, a College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering, and will bring together neuroscientists and sensory physiologists who study hearing, speech, and language, as well as mathematicians who investigate neural coding. The center will connect scientists in these areas to enhance technological innovation and develop technologies such as neural prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces.<\/p>\n
Chantal Stern, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of psychological and brain sciences and the director of the Brain, Behavior and Cognition program, will direct the Cognitive Neuroimaging Center. She says the building\u2014and especially the new imaging technology\u2014signals the administration\u2019s commitment to first-class research at BU.<\/p>\n
The University boasts one of the nation\u2019s largest clusters of researchers in the emerging fields of systems neuroscience, which examines brain function at the cellular, molecular, and cognitive levels, and biological design, which seeks to build new biological systems with the tools and techniques of engineering. These interdisciplinary fields tackle some of the thorniest problems in science and medicine, like the detection and treatment of infectious diseases, treatments for Parkinson\u2019s and Alzheimer\u2019s diseases, how memory works, and the root causes of autism. These problems draw researchers from diverse fields who are currently spread across both campuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the great things about BU is that we have spectacular faculty from many different disciplines,\u201d says Waters. \u201cThis building will allow us to bring them together in ways that wouldn\u2019t happen if they occupied space in their individual school or college. By placing new groups in proximity to one another, we are hoping to develop collaborations that would not happen otherwise, and ultimately some unique areas of excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt will contain lab space for approximately 160 researchers, postdoctoral students, and staff, 270 graduate students, and additional space for future faculty.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Like many scientists working across disciplines, Douglas Densmore, an ENG assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and of biomedical engineering and a primary investigator in the young field of biological design, has multiple offices and students scattered in buildings across campus. CILSE will allow him to gather his various research projects, and his students, under one roof. \u201cI want students to be able to see each other,\u201d says Densmore. \u201cIt will be great to be in a welcoming environment that facilitates collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ask other researchers what tops their wish list for the new building and many of them echo Densmore. Their number-one priority is simple: finally having a place to bring their colleagues together.<\/p>\nDouglas Densmore, an ENG assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and of biomedical engineering. Photo by Jessica Scranton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cYou find neuroscientists and people who define themselves as neuroscientists on both campuses\u2014in psychological and brain sciences, biomedical engineering, biology, at Sargent College, in mathematics, physics, radiology, psychiatry, anatomy, neurobiology, pharmacology\u2014and they\u2019re all in different buildings,\u201d Stern says. She is looking forward to the collaborative projects these researchers might be inspired to undertake once they\u2019re under the same roof.<\/p>\n
So how do you encourage biologists to talk to engineers? One way to do that, says principal architect Charles Klee, is by creating lab spaces large enough\u2014the plan for CILSE is 17,000 to 20,000 square feet per research floor\u2014to put two or three principal investigators on each floor. \u201cWith people in the same space, you can say, \u2018I\u2019m having a problem with my protein sequencer; have you ever seen this?\u2019 Another person can answer, \u2018Sure\u2014someone over here can help you with that,\u2019\u201d says Klee.<\/p>\n
Scientists from different disciplines may also share lab space on the same floor in some instances. In addition to the abundance of other common spaces, there will be kitchenettes on each research floor and\u2014one of Klee\u2019s favorite ideas for promoting serendipitous, cross-disciplinary encounters\u2014an inviting, open stairway connecting the kitchenettes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand you\u2019ll talk to someone when you have to,\u201d says Klee. \u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for is the chance discussion that happens just because you bump into someone. It jars something loose in your mind, causes you to think about something in a new way\u2014that\u2019s very much what this kind of a building is trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As science has evolved, so has the design of science buildings. \u201cWhen I was beginning my career, most buildings were designed to function within single disciplines,\u201d says Brown. \u201cI have seen this change dramatically over the last two decades. Now, almost all universities are focused on allocating quality space to strategically important interdisciplinary research.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nFor modern research, quality space also means specific building capabilities, such as flexible lab space and testing centers, so scientists can configure different experiments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWhenever they ask if we want a wall or not, we say no wall,\u201d says Densmore. \u201cYou need this flexibility or you\u2019re going to paint yourself into a corner.\u201d Densmore imagines a futuristic lab space for his work in biological design, with multiple microfluidic devices, 3-D printers creating custom equipment, and RFID-enabled name tags to track students\u2019 experiments. \u201cWhen people walk in, they\u2019ll say, \u2018Something different is going on here,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Other scientists have different ambitions for the building, especially for the Cognitive Neuroimaging Center. \u201cWe want to have room to put in an exercise bike, in case we want to study exercise and the brain,\u201d says Tyler Perrachione, a Sargent College assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences and a Peter Paul Career Development Professor. \u201cOr beds, so we can study sleep and the brain. We\u2019ll have the ability to study the biology of the brain in action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perrachione, who plans to use the Cognitive Neuroimaging Center primarily for pediatric imaging, has been working with the architect to make sure it will be welcoming for children. \u201cIt turns out when you set up a center that\u2019s friendly for kids,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s friendly for adults, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perrachione notes that the neuroimaging facility will also include a \u201cmock scanner\u201d (\u201ckind of like a scanner play set,\u201d he says) that will allow special populations\u2014children, people with autism or anxiety, the elderly\u2014to become familiar with the MRI before entering the actual scanner.<\/p>\nMichael Hasselmo, director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience and a CAS professor of psychological and brain sciences. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAnother critically important feature for neuroscientists at CILSE will be the sophisticated testing rooms that will minimize vibrations and shield experiments from electrical noise and electromagnetic interference. These factors can hinder research, whether it involves interviewing human subjects or the painstaking work of recording signals from individual neurons. Some of the lab space will have special floors that minimize everyday vibrations\u2014from, say, footsteps\u2014that could get in the way of research.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very different than setting up an office building\u2014it\u2019s not just a computer and desk,\u201d says Michael Hasselmo, director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience and a CAS professor of psychological and brain sciences. \u201cA person walking past your lab can ruin your whole experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the exterior, says Klee, the new science building will be \u201cairy, transparent, beautiful.\u201d He says his team is mindful that CILSE should not overshadow iconic Morse Auditorium, which is eligible for historic landmark status. \u201cThis will be a quiet building,\u201d he says. \u201cIt won\u2019t shout.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that, the architect says, seems to suit the researchers. They just want to get inside and do their work. \u201cResearch is much more than a job; it\u2019s not a 9-to-5 activity,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s this kind of passion. They want a facility that will let them do what they want to do. Come hell or high water, it has to function.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown has emphasized that the research inside the building be reflected in its exterior, says Klee. Just as EPIC (the new Engineering Product Innovation Center on Commonwealth Avenue) allows the public to see the hands-on nature of engineering, CILSE\u2019s glass-walled exterior will provide a window onto basic science research at BU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a building that wants to be ashamed that it\u2019s a research building,\u201d Klee says. \u201cYou\u2019ll be able to see the exhaust fans on the roof, for example. It\u2019s transparent. You can see life in it. A lot of buildings are opaque\u2014you have no idea whether it\u2019s a dorm, an office building, or a bank. We\u2019re giving science a front door on Commonwealth Avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara Rimer can be reached at srimer@bu.edu. Barbara Moran can be reached at bmoran@bu.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Barbara Moran and Sara Rimer This story was originally published on the BU Research website. For decades, some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4064,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[736],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4064"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12163"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13342,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12163\/revisions\/13342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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