Press Release

For Release on Oct. 24 at 10 a.m.
Contact: Susan Preston
(973) 972-7265

Piscataway Campus Ceremony Marks Opening of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Research Building and UMDNJ-School of Public Health Building

Academic leaders and public officials lauded the research, educational and economic development benefits of the new UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Research Building and UMDNJ-School of Public Health Building at a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony today (October 24) in Piscataway, New Jersey. The $45 million, 120,000-square-foot building is part of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey's (UMDNJ) statewide five-year $535 million capital campaign to support research, education and clinical care.

"We expect that with this new building, and the other capital projects in the pipeline, we will easily exceed our goal of doubling research growth by 2004," said Dr. Stuart D. Cook, UMDNJ president. "In fact, over the past four years, UMDNJ funding from the National Institutes of Health has increased at a faster rate than all other universities nationwide, and the National Science Foundation has ranked UMDNJ the number one research university in New Jersey based on federal expenditures."

The building dedicated today houses 27 state-of the-art scientific laboratories for UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School scientists occupying 90,000-square feet of the building. The building provides 30,000-square feet of space for classrooms, laboratories and offices of the UMDNJ-School of Public Health, the first school in the nation to be accredited as a collaborative school of public health. The facility also contains an imaging suite and a nuclear magnetic resonance facility.

The new building was designed to link the two schools with a soaring central atrium that offers the opportunity for researchers to interact and share ideas that may lead to interdisciplinary partnerships and collaborative discovery. Two dazzling light-responsive sculptures, created by artist Ray King, are the centerpieces of the atrium.

With its focus on laboratory research and education, the building -- in both form and function -- reflects the goal of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to redirect the emphasis of its research grant recipients to three main areas: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise.

In keeping with the NIH plan, the new building's state-of-the-art design and high- technology equipment will support multi-disciplinary research teams and scientific discovery in fast-evolving fields such as bioinformatics, structural biology, stem cell transplantation, neurological disorders, biochemistry, gene expression, heart disease, and breast and prostate cancer.

"Biomedical science is the major science of the 21st century, and quality physical space is a critical tool for scientists to study molecular and genetic approaches in order to advance our understanding of diseases and translate this knowledge from laboratory to human health," said Dr. Harold L Paz, dean of the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "This new building is an important component of the medical school's strategic plan to emerge among the top echelon of academic medical centers nationwide. It will help us attract the best scientists to join our faculty and the brightest students to enter our medical education programs."

Prior to the opening of the new facility, the five divisions of the UMDNJ-School of Public Health program had been scattered in four locations in Piscataway and New Brunswick. The school also has divisions at the Newark and Stratford campuses of the university. The new location in proximity to the medical school and several major research institutes supports the school's master's and doctoral dual-degree programs on the Piscataway campus and

enhances its ability to work together to respond to new public health initiatives related to the threat of bioterrorism and the growing potential for global outbreaks of new infectious diseases.

Dr. Audrey R. Gotsch, dean of the UMDNJ-School of Public Health, said, "Although we are the newest school of the university, our public health research expertise already has been recognized by our peers nationwide as a vital component in the new world in which we find ourselves--whether in the wake of the events of 9/11 or the post-SARS outbreak."

As part of the dedication day events, the two schools hosted a scientific symposium, "Building Molecular Pathways to the Future," which included presentations by six leading faculty scientists and was chaired by Dr. Sidney Pestka, chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Microbiology, and Immunology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and recipient of the 2001 National Medal of Technology.

At a reception held following the scientific symposium, New Jersey Commissioner of Health and Senior Services Dr. Clifton Lacy, a 1979 graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, addressed alumni and friends of the scientific community.

On Thursday (October 23), the two schools hosted the 5th Annual Research Day, which featured posters and presentations by medical students, graduate students, clinical fellows, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and UMDNJ-School of Public Health. Nobel Laureate Dr. Eric Wieschaus, a faculty member at Princeton University and adjunct faculty member at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, was the keynote speaker.

In addition to this building, a 20,000-square-foot scientific research annex was opened on the Piscataway campus in 2002 to address a critical shortage of laboratory space for the medical school's scientists. The capital construction plan for the Central Jersey campus also includes two major projects in New Brunswick, a 150,000-square-foot expansion of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and a new 150,000-square-foot building to house the Child Health Institute of New Jersey. When completed, the plan will have resulted in 556,500-square-feet of new or renovated space for Central Jersey for a total cost of more than $200 million.

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