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Columns::May 19, 2003
Budget includes funds for three key university projects
Research professor is named Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Commencement 2003: A time of tears (and cheers)
Good job: Employee efforts recognized
Retirees
Campus News
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| The new CCRC building on Riverbend Road is scheduled for completion this October. (Photo by Paul Efland) |
Poised for growth
CCRC expansion is expected to boost local economy by more than $14 million
By Allyson Mann
tiny@uga.edu
A new building and two new faculty members will greatly enhance UGA’s research in medical glycobiology--the study of the role of complex carbohydrates in medicine--and may have lasting impact on the health of Georgians.
Scientists at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center are focused on investigating the complex carbohydrates found on the surfaces of cells. These surface carbohydrates play significant roles in human disease--roles that are not completely understood. Researchers have discovered that changes in a cell’s surface can correlate with cancerous states; understanding the role of surface carbohydrates in such changes could lead to advances in diagnostic techniques, vaccines and remedies.
The CCRC expansion includes a three-story facility, located in UGA’s research park on Riverbend Road, and a plan to hire five faculty members. The building will boost the local economy with $11.6 million in one-time expenditures, according to Jo Ann Chitty, president of the UGA Real Estate Foundation. The new facility was financed by the foundation, which issues tax-exempt, long-term revenue bonds that provide immediate capital for fast-track building projects.
The new CCRC building and five new faculty members are projected to generate as many as 70 local jobs with an annual estimated payroll of $2.5 million, according to Alan Darvill, co-director of the CCRC. Darvill says financing the building through the real estate foundation made it possible for the center to expand without losing momentum.
“In a cutting-edge field you need to be able to move quickly with hires and purchasing equipment,” he says. “The UGA Real Estate Foundation was the key to this whole process.”
At nearly 130,000 square feet, the new building will provide 50 percent more space than the CCRC’s current facility. The highly specialized design will house state-of-the-art equipment and promote collaborative research among faculty, according to Darvill. The building is expected to be complete in October; two new faculty members--Michael Tiemeyer and Lance Wells--will arrive on campus in August.
Tiemeyer is currently a carbohydrate biochemist with Eurofins Scientific Inc., a private firm in Silicon Valley. He earned a Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before becoming a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and later joining the faculty at Yale University in the department of cell biology and the interdepartmental neuroscience program. Wells joins UGA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he is a post-doctoral fellow. He earned a Ph.D. at the Emory University School of Medicine and a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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