Cellular Connection

Boston University’s proposed new Life Science and Engineering Center will concentrate BU’s scientific resources and catapult the university to the cusp of a multidisciplinary scientific revolution, university officials say.

‘The facilities of this building will provide new opportunities for students to work with faculty on exciting research projects at the frontiers of the life sciences,’ said Provost Dennis Berkey.

The proposed complex, to be built on Cummington Street, will house the biology, chemistry and biomedical engineering faculty, and allow them to interact and collaborate in one building, said Dr. Charles DeLisi, director of the Center for Advanced Genomic Technology and chairman of the bioinformatics program.

Bringing separate life science departments together, the new complex will integrate research groups, which will be mixed according to their own research interests, according to Dr. Tom Tullius, chairman of the Chemistry Department. By doing so, the center will provide BU scientists the ability to make a large contribution to curing diseases because much of the research will focus on disease-related problems, Tullius said.

‘It’s a very important step ahead to integrate the life sciences,’ he said.

According to Tullius, the building itself offers convenience for faculty from all over the Charles River campus to see each other more often and have more resources concentrated in one place.

Graduate students and doctoral candidates will work in the new laboratories alongside the faculty, who will accomplish more because of their close working proximity, Tullius said.

Adnan Derti, a doctoral student in bioinformatics, said bringing scientists together is ‘incredibly important from the perspective of graduate students who want to do interesting research.

‘And, in my opinion,’ he continued, ‘that aspect alone will be far more important than things like computers and infrastructure. It’s definitely an important commitment by the university to the scientific community here, but it’s also an investment that will produce some amazing results,’ Derti said.

According to DeLisi, since the 1950s, biology has become more quantitative, mathematical and computational. Biology now involves explaining cell behavior in terms of genes and proteins, requiring a new type of biologist, who understands computers because the data is impossible to take down by hand, he said.

‘[Biology research] will impact our understanding of evolution, our own development and what makes us each medically different from the next,’ DeLisi said.

Research in the center will focus on a wide, yet related, range of topics, from fundamental questions like how the immune system develops to clinical questions like understanding certain diseases such as cancer, he said.

According to DeLisi, each individual is susceptible to different diseases because everyone’s immune system differs, depending on variations of genes, and the changing of gene patterns is important in the development of disease.

‘The sooner you treat [disease], the more likely the treatment is successful,’ he said.

Delisi said this new kind of biologist is essential to the growing field of bioinformatics, which Derti describes as ‘a bridge between the life sciences and engineering.’ It involves the use of computers to study the molecular biology and physics of the cell, Director of Space Management Paul Rinaldi said earlier this month when he presented the building to the BU Community Task Force.

Though the field is just starting to develop, ‘BU has the largest and best program in the country with at least 50 faculty members,’ DeLisi said.

‘Bioinformatics makes us unique in the country,’ said Dr. Tullius. ‘We are probably the first to offer a degree in the field.’

In the center, graduate and doctoral students will have their own office and computer space set aside, and will aid in connecting faculty from different departments through their own interdisciplinary research interests, according to Tullius.

‘Students act as a sort of glue between different groups,’ Tullius said.

Peter Haverty, a BU bioinformatics doctoral candidate, said the center is advantageous to graduate students because ‘it will offer greater opportunities for interactions between researchers in different laboratories and fields of research.

‘Additionally, the center will provide modern laboratory facilities for a greater number of students, especially in the rapidly growing bioinformatics department,’ he said.

Why, though, should undergraduates care?

Though an undergraduate program in bioinformatics is not yet offered at BU, one of the few undergraduate bioinformatics courses in the country is taught here, according to Tullius. And the National Institutes of Health extend a summer research program for BU undergrads studying the physical sciences to understand how these sciences connect with the life sciences, Tullius said.

‘It’s a terrific opportunity for students,’ he said, recalling one mathematics student who he said was so excited by the program that he is now pursuing a master’s degree in bioinformatics.

So why did BU decide to invest $80 million in a Life Science and Engineering Center?

The life science programs, particularly biology, chemistry, biomedical engineering and bioinformatics, are extremely popular with students, according to Provost Berkey.

‘The research done in these areas is important to further understanding human development, curing diseases and improving quality of human life,’ Berkey said.

Officials also say they hope the center will benefit enrollment at BU.

‘It will help draw excellent students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels,’ Berkey said. ‘And it will support the faculty’s important work in securing research grants, which both support the work of the faculty and students as well as help pay for the building through indirect cost recoveries,’ he added.

According to Tullius, BU is also part of a worldwide effort in the field of bioinformatics research. Through an international collaborative program, the department offers graduate students the chance to study and exchange ideas during workshops in Berlin, Tullius said. BU is also in the process of connecting with a group in Japan as part of the same program.

If approved, the building will go up on Cummington Street, where the Nickelodeon Theater currently stands. Pending the approval of the BU Community Task Force and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, demolition of the Nickelodeon could start as soon as March. The 22-month construction would start soon after, the architects said.

According to the architects from Cannon Design, the building will be roughly the same height as the Photonics Center but a full 100,000 square feet smaller in length and width in order to squeeze onto the footprint of the original building.