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CUE 2006

An artist's rendering of the proposed biotechnology building shows an interior view of areas where faculty in different disciplines could intermix. Campus leaders hope to have the new building ready to open by 2009.

Biotechnology Building Planned for East Research Campus

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering expects to move to a new home by the end of the decade, when a state-of-the-art biotechnology building is projected to open on the East Research Campus, near 30th and Colorado Avenue.

The proposed $113 million biotechnology building is in its early planning stages. Envisioned as a research and teaching facility, the building will include research labs that foster interdisciplinary research, teaching labs that support existing and new interdisciplinary degree programs, and meeting and communication space that helps to bridge physical distances between the new building, the rest of the university, and the biotechnology industry.

The building is expected to be funded by a variety of sources, including the university, research overhead, and private support. It is planned to include at least 150,000 square feet of assignable space, housing over 60 faculty and over 600 students and other researchers from engineering and life sciences. State support will be sought for classroom and laboratory education space.

The new facility is one of the pillars of CU-Boulder's Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, a campus-wide initiative bringing together faculty and students from molecular, cellular, and developmental biology; chemical and biological engineering; chemistry and biochemistry; applied mathematics; computer science; ecology and evolutionary biology; integrative physiology, and physics.

The initiative aims to build on CU-Boulder's strong heritage in biotechnology and harness the extraordinary advances in biology to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease.