The plain, stucco-like concrete block structure doesn’t have an official name. It’s listed simply as UF Building #3382 in the University of Florida’s inventory system.
And it’s never had one specific purpose. Tucked behind the bigger, flashier buildings at Shands Jacksonville, over the past 20-some years it’s housed a children’s crisis center, a medical technology school, and the library and offices of a nonprofit foundation.
In March the building’s anonymity – and purpose – changed. After a 10-month, $3.2 million-dollar interior renovation, Building #3382 finally came into its own as the first consolidated, dedicated research space for the UF Health Science Center-Jacksonville campus.
“For a long time it’s been part of our campus growth plan to have dedicated research space and to have it in a consolidated space,” said Robert C. Nuss, M.D., associate vice president for health affairs and College of Medicine senior associate dean. “There are other research laboratory spaces scattered throughout the campus, but this is the first one that will be used specifically for that purpose.”
Originally built by Shands to provide additional office space for the campus, the building was informally dubbed “the Child Crisis Center” because for years the center was the building’s primary lessee. Even so, research is associated with the building’s history.
“Over time other things were in there, but there was always a space in the building that was dedicated for a research lab – and that was on the second floor and probably about 1,000 square feet,” Nuss said. UF leased the property from Shands, paid for the renovation and is paying the utilities.
Construction began in June 2006 and was completed in March. Pre-renovation, the building had 11,000 square feet; now, with the addition of an elevator, it boasts 11,728 square feet.
Post-renovation it has eight individual investigator office spaces, several cubicles for post-doctoral associates and fellows, eight 40- by 30-foot research pods and the usual hoods, centrifuges and freezers. It does not have animal facilities, and is not planned to have them.
The building’s renovation is part of the plan to develop a research infrastructure on the Jacksonville campus that supports UF’s overall research goals, specifically the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award application process.
“It’s essential for maintaining the accreditation of the residency program and providing the facilities necessary to support individual research grants, including NIH-funded research proposals,” Nuss said. “And, of course, it’s necessary to continue to recruit basic researchers, clinical researchers and Ph.D.s.”
Building #3382 provides a special niche for researchers. Clinical trials and very basic research require research coordinators, statisticians, data personnel and patients – not lab equipment like a hood, centrifuge and minus-80-degrees freezer.
That’s why Nuss envisions the new laboratory as a workplace for Jacksonville researchers who work on cell cultures and other hands-on lab procedures, like Steve Goodison, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of surgery, and K.V. Chalam, M.D., Ph.D., professor and interim chair in the department of ophthalmology.
“Goodison is studying metastatic breast cancer cells, and Chalam is working on one of the federally approved stem cell lines to see if he can convert them to retinal stem cells,” Nuss said. Having dedicated lab space and equipment for this type of work is something Jacksonville administrators and faculty have long sought.
“We’ve renovated and consolidated our ‘new’ research building to support our researchers in their important work and to attract new researchers to our campus – all with the goal of enhancing research at the University of Florida,” Nuss said.