West Virginia University Nears Completion of Blanchette Rockefeller Alzheimer's Research Institute

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated (Sugar Land, Texas) -- The $32 million Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) building is on target to be complete in September 2008. As reported in Industrial Info's Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database, construction began in 2006 on the 78,000 square foot facility, which will house both laboratory and office space for the institute. Currently, BRNI research takes place in 4,000 square feet of space on the WVU campus and in a 12,000 square foot Johns Hopkins University research lab near Washington, D.C.

The new building will house programs studying diseases that result in memory loss, such as Alzheimer's disease, depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. BRNI was founded by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia in memory of his mother, who died of Alzheimer's disease

Designed by Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson and Abbott (Boston, Massachusetts), the three-story facility will accommodate up to 100 researchers in 20,000 square feet of lab space. In addition to offering ten feet of bench space per scientist in the open labs, the building will house microscopy and electrophysiology labs, a darkroom, and a commons area. Mosites out of Pittsburgh is the construction contractor for the project.

Age was a major feature for locating the BRNI facility in West Virginia. The leading risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is age and the state has the highest average age in the nation. During the next 25 years West Virginia's elderly population is projected to grow by 60 percent.

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