Congress has awarded another $691,000 to the Center for Research on Human Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
The money was included in the Omnibus Appropriation Bill passed by Congress on Dec. 15 as part of the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, in an agency called Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
The appropriation, part of continuing federal support for the building, brings the federal appropriation total to $20,878,476. The school will use the appropriation, along with a 1999 HRSA grant, toward construction of the fourth floor of the center''s building.
The fourth floor will be used for research laboratories in cancer biology and radiation oncology. Part will be for a special facility certified according to standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for cell and gene therapy. The remainder of the 12,200 square feet of usable space on the floor will be divided among 15 laboratories and support spaces.
The total cost to complete the fourth floor is projected at $4.8 million, with $1.5 million of that going for major equipment. Part of the equipment costs will be paid by a $693,750 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development received last summer. Construction of the fourth and fifth floors began in October, and will take about one year to complete.
The first funds were appropriated in 1990 toward the cost of the building, which was estimated then at more than $58 million.
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Contact: Robert Conn, Jim Steele or Mark Wright at (336) 716-4587.