VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s new Molecular Medicine Research Building will be dedicated at noon on Friday, April 24, in the multi-function room 1009 and 1011 on the ground floor, at 1220 E. Broad St., on the MCV Campus.

The eight-story, 125,000 square-foot facility is the latest addition to the VCU Medical Center and will house 48 principal investigators and their staffs. The laboratory floors are designed with an open layout that encourages interaction among researchers across disciplines.

The $71.5 million research facility includes research labs, a 75-seat, state-of-the-art auditorium with teleconference facilities and multipurpose seminar space. Additionally, the building is registered with the United States Green Building Council and anticipates LEED certification in three to six months. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the council’s leading rating system for designing and constructing the world’s greenest, most energy efficient and high-performing buildings.

The opening of the new building coincides with an increase in research awards to the VCU School of Medicine by the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine recently moved up six positions in the NIH rankings to No. 53 out of 126 ranked schools, with awards of nearly $63 million for medical research.

Preceding the dedication event, the VCU School of Medicine will host a Symposium on Molecular Medicine from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., in the auditorium of the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Science Building, 1217 E. Marshall St. Featured guest speakers include J. Silvio Gutkind, Ph.D., chief of the Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch at the National Institutes of Health, and Charles F. Stevens, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular neurobiology at the Salk Institute. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Media representatives will be able to tour the new research space following the dedication ceremony.