South Florida Business Journal - by Brian Bandell

Thursday, February 4, 2010, 2:42pm EST

 

The University of Miami said Thursday that it received a $14.8 million grant of stimulus funds from the National Institutes of Health to construct the Neuroscience and Health Annex on its Coral Gables campus. UM will fund $3.7 million of construction-related costs for the project.

Thanks mostly to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal agencies have given UM 114 awards totaling $89.9 million.

The new 37,700-square-foot facility will be shared by researchers from UM’s College of Arts and Sciences and Miller School of Medicine. They will use advanced imaging equipment, including a human functional magnetic resonance imaging laboratory, to track brain function, with the goal of improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases.

“This new facility will provide state-of-the-art laboratories where scientists and physicians from across the university can converge to ask some of the most pressing questions in modern science,” said Jacqueline Dixon, interim dean of UM’s College of Arts and Sciences, in a news release. “The new Neuroscience and Health Annex will allow us to continue the expansion of our research capabilities and establish a sophisticated imaging center.”

The facility should have a groundbreaking in fall 2010 and be completed in early 2012. UM said the project will create 174 temporary construction jobs and 15 permanent jobs for research, operations and maintenance.

This is the second major advanced imaging center planned for South Florida. The Max Planck Society, a large German research organization, is nearing groundbreaking on a 100,000-square-foot imaging research center in Jupiter, utilizing $188 million in state and local funds. Neurological disorders will be one of the key focuses there, as well.