Date: March 12, 2013 By:
The Boston Globe today featured the Ragon Institute’s new lab space and highlights the potential impact of cuts in federal funding on HIV research:
“A leading AIDS research center unveiled its new $30 million laboratory building in Cambridge Monday, where it aims to push ahead with efforts to develop an HIV vaccine and to study tuberculosis, which has affected hundreds of thousands of HIV patients in African and other developing countries.
The opening of the Ragon Institute’s new home comes at a difficult moment for AIDS and other biomedical scientists, as they brace for possible cuts in their federal research grants driven by sequestration of the federal budget and shows the growing importance of private support.
The 75,000 square-foot facility near Kendall Square provides three times as much space as the institute’s original offices, established four years ago at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Charlestown campus, with a $100 million gift from software magnate Phillip Terrence Ragon. The MIT graduate also gave the money for constructing and equipping the new lab, which is roomy enough for the staff of 175 to double over the next few years and still leave bench space for visiting scientists.”
The article includes quotes from Drs. Bruce Walker, Sarah Fortune, Anthony Fauci (NIH) and Daniel Kavanagh.
Read the Boston Globe article.
[excerpted text and image via BostonGlobe.com]
