November 13, 2003
Dedication
Held For Life
Sciences Building
EVANSTON, Ill. --- A diverse group of Northwestern University
life scientists has moved into the sparkling new labs of the Arthur
and Gladys Pancoe-Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Life Sciences
Pavilion, which officially opened Nov. 14 with a dedication ceremony.
Located on the Evanston campus immediately south of the William
A. and Gayle K. Cook Hall and adjacent to the O.T. Hogan Biological
Sciences Building, the new life sciences pavilion will provide
lab space for 24 to 32 principal investigators and their research
groups working in the areas of molecular biology, genomics, cell
biology, neurobiology, developmental biology and reproductive biology.
What makes the Pancoe-ENH enterprise special is bringing exciting
basic and clinical research together in one building. Thematic
clusters of basic scientists are studying how individual proteins
combine to form complex machines, how these machines build and
maintain the cell, how cells multiply and change their identity
during development from a fertilized egg to a newborn, and how
the developed brain and nervous system receive, process and respond
to signals from the outside world.
Mixed in with
these groups investigating fundamental questions are ENH physician-scientists
studying the roots of diabetes and
dementia and autoimmune disease and cancer. The constant interchange
of ideas and findings between these groups will blur the lines
between “basic” and “clinical” research.
As a result, the work of basic scientists will be better informed
by clinically important problems, and clinical researchers will
integrate into their experiments the latest discoveries from basic
scientists. Known as translational research, this type of research
brings promising new findings in biomedicine to the patient more
quickly and efficiently.
“This new building exemplifies the cooperative partnerships
Northwestern University is creating with Evanston Northwestern
Healthcare and other institutions to produce advances in the life
sciences and biomedicine,” said University President Henry
S. Bienen. “Northwestern is at the forefront in a number
of areas of biomedical research and this new facility will enable
us to continue this important work.”
Northwestern alumnus Arthur Pancoe and his wife Gladys gave $10
million toward the construction of the building. Through a partnership
with the University, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare provided
$14.5 million toward the building project, along with additional
support for research on the Chicago campus. The University also
has received more than $10 million in federal grants for the Pancoe-ENH
building from the National Institutes of Health and the Health
Resources and Services Administration.
“We are very grateful to the Pancoes and Evanston Northwestern
Healthcare for their generous gifts, which will benefit research
in important and growing fields,” Bienen said.
The building is being completed in two phases. Phase one, which
includes construction of the entire building, the public spaces
and laboratory build-out of the four floors of the north wing,
is now complete and cost $61 million. The second phase, the laboratory
build-out of the south wing, will be completed within the next
two years and is projected to cost $15.9 million.
The pavilion
will be dedicated to the memory of the Pancoes’ granddaughter,
Beth Elise Pancoe, a student at Northwestern at the time of her
death in 1999 from acute myelogenous leukemia. A portrait of her,
to be unveiled at the building’s dedication, will hang in
the lobby.
“My wife, Hap, and I could not have hoped for a more fitting
memorial to our beloved granddaughter, Beth. It is our sincere
hope that the work done by the talented scientists who will occupy
this building will serve to advance science so that one day, people
like Beth can live full and happy lives,” said Arthur Pancoe.
“I have enjoyed many years of success investing in the
drug field, in part because of the analytical skills I acquired
as a fellow in the graduate program in mathematics at Northwestern,” he
continued. “This building has given me the opportunity to
return some of that success to both my alma mater, Northwestern,
and to society at large.”
The four-story, 174,000-square-foot building was designed for
collaboration and interaction across disciplines; it has an unusually
high number of gathering spaces and is connected by bridges to
Cook and Hogan halls. All research space is self-contained and
separate from faculty offices and public space.
Pancoe-ENH
features state-of-the-art research laboratories that can be customized
with flexible components, linear equipment hallways
for common equipment such as centrifuges, freezers and liquid nitrogen
tanks, a 20-seat conference room and an “interaction room” on
each floor, and faculty offices with views of Lake Michigan.
Central public
facilities include the 105-seat Abbott Laboratories Auditorium,
which is a smart classroom with complete videoconferencing
capabilities located on the first floor, and an Einstein Bagels
café on the second floor with views of Lake Michigan.
Eight developmental
and cell biologists from the department of biochemistry, molecular
biology and cell biology currently have
laboratories in the new building. Professor Richard Carthew and
assistant professors Gregory Beitel, Andrew Dudley and Xiaozhong
(Alec) Wang are located on the first floor; associate professor
Linda Hicke and assistant professors Heike Fölsch, Carole
LaBonne and Eric Weiss are on the third floor.
Three scientists from the department of neurobiology and physiology
have labs on the second floor: professor Lawrence Pinto, associate
professor Nelson Spruston and assistant professor Catherine Woolley.
Olke Uhlenbeck, Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Molecular Biology and Cell Biology and an expert in biomolecular
machines, occupies a lab on the fourth floor next to the ENH physician-scientists.
“We made an investment in the life sciences building on
behalf of our patients and physician-scientists,” said Mark
R. Neaman, president and chief executive officer of Evanston Northwestern
Healthcare, a three-hospital health system headquartered in Evanston. “The
reality of having ENH scientists in close proximity to the discovery
process in the basic sciences means improved access to new insights
and breakthroughs.”
Three ENH principal investigators and their research teams will
reside on the fourth floor. Joseph Bass, M.D., an assistant professor
of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, will be joined
by two other researchers currently being recruited by ENH, one
of whom will focus on the area of medical genetics.
“Northwestern has a culture that works across disciplines
in order to tackle new research challenges and make breakthrough
discoveries,” said Provost Lawrence B. Dumas. “Partnerships
are an important part of this process. State-of-the-art facilities
such as the Pancoe-ENH building help the University attract renowned
researchers from around the world.”
The architect of the Arthur and Gladys Pancoe-Evanston Northwestern
Healthcare Life Sciences Pavilion is Zimmer Gunsul Fransca Partnership
of Los Angeles, who also designed the Center for Nanofabrication
and Molecular Self-Assembly at Northwestern. |