Messenger - Vol. 3, No. 3, Page 5
Spring 1994
Works of Progress
Construction date set for biotechnology center

     With federal funding now assured, ground will be broken in
October for a new $7 million, state-of-the-art research laboratory at
the College of Agricultural Sciences in Newark, Del. The agricultural
biotechnology center, which will be located east of Townsend Hall,
will be the first building on campus to include biocontainment
laboratories, permitting research on avian flu and other exotic
poultry diseases. Vaccine development for poultry diseases is crucial
to the $1.26 billion Delmarva Peninsula poultry industry, which
produced about 10 percent of the nation's broiler chickens in 1992.
     Half the cost of the biotechnology center will be funded by the
federal government, with the balance provided by the state, the
University and the poultry industry.
     Although major emphasis will be placed on animal vaccine
development, researchers from other areas of the University will be
encouraged to use the facilities. Construction is expected to be
completed by the fall of 1995.