Indiana's Purdue Building a Potent Research Base with Over $100 Million in Construction Projects

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) is in the midst of a powerful program to beef up their life science research programs, including areas of study that are so cutting edge, their very definitions are still being refined. In various phases of development, from engineering to actual construction, the new buildings are going up at Discovery Park, located on Purdue's West Lafayette campus. The projects, valued at over $100 million, will accommodate everything from bioscience research to actual pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Project Summary:

Birck Nanotechnology Center: $58 million 187,000-square-foot facility featuring a 25,000 square foot nanofabrication biomolecular cleanroom (Class 10, 100 and 1000) and other specialized laboratories for nanoscale research and student training. A nanotechnology incubator facility will also be built for commercial enterprises. Nano is a prefix meaning one-billionth, so a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Nanotechnology is the nascent science in which new materials and tiny structures are built atom-by-atom, or molecule-by-molecule, instead of the more conventional sculpting parts from pre-existing materials. Contractor: Pepper Construction Company (Indianapolis, Indiana) (Plant ID 1057669)

The Bindley Bioscience Center: $15 million 50,000-square-foot facility to accommodate bioscience and biomedical research in the areas of genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and instrumentation development. Bindley's research laboratories and offices will serve as the heart of interdisciplinary life science research on the campus, and will connect directly to the Birck Nanotechnology Center. Contractor: Weigland Construction (Fort Wayne, Indiana) (PEC 11002193)

The Biomedical Engineering Building: $25 million 81,750-square-foot facility will provide research labs and offices. Biomedical engineering has been described as a combination of biology and engineering in order to identify how biological systems work. It is used to develop artificial body parts, as well as machines to monitor and diagnose health problems. Bioengineering is used not just for humans, but for plants as well. Plants and crops are also 'bioengineered', to produce bigger and better yields. The building will house Indiana's first undergraduate program in biomedical engineering, as well as the existing graduate program. (PEC11002302)

Allen Chao Center for Industrial Pharmacy and Contract Manufacturing: $7 million A pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in partnership with Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) (Indianapolis, Indiana), that will train future workers, as well as actually manufacture products on a small-scale basis. Initially, the plant will manufacture antibiotics to combat formerly drug-resistant tuberculosis. It will also offer contract-manufacturing capacity. Purdue has over 250 students enrolled in drug manufacturing and pharmacy programs that will learn to produce commercial drugs within FDA regulations. Engineer: Lockwood Greene (Spartanburg, South Carolina) (PEC 11002034)

Click the following link to view Industrialinfo.com's 2003 North American Pharmaceutical-Biotech Forecast