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Novato’s Buck wins $20.5 million to create stem-cell research facility

NOVATO, May 7, 2008, updated at 12:15 p.m. -- The Buck Institute for Age Research today was awarded $20.5 million toward the creation of a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Center of Excellence on its Novato campus.

The seed funding, part of $274 million to jump start the building of 12 embryonic stem-cell research facilities throughout the state, will allow the Buck to add a second laboratory and provide space for as many as 12 new principal investigators working primarily in stem-cell research.

The 65,708-square-foot building will cost $41 million, with the additional funds to be raised by the Buck. The institute for regenerative medicine estimates it would cost $608 per square foot, not including equipment, to build the new facility on the Novato campus, significantly below the average $934 per square foot construction cost among the other 12 grantees.

"We'll look for the additional funding from a variety of sources," said Buck President and COO James Kovach, M.D.

"Because it'll most likely be the first center built from the ground up, donors will want to be associated with it. There's also the potential for partnering and collaborating with other research institutes working for CIRM or even private businesses. Pharmaceutical companies that don't have a stem-cell program would also be potential donors."

Other recipients of the CIRM grants include Stanford University, the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine and eight University of California campuses.

Only U.C. Berkeley and the Buck were selected as Centers of Excellence, which foster stem-cell research in two of three categories: basic and discovery stem-cell research, preclinical research and preclinical development and clinical research.

In 2007, the Buck received a grant of $4.1 million from the institute for regenerative medicine for a shared research facility and was one of six institutions selected for a training facility to teach doctoral and post-doctoral scientists to grow stem-cell colonies.

Groundbreaking for the new building, with an exterior designed by I.M. Pei, will take place next July, with completion projected for July 2010, said Dr. Kovach. It'll be the third of five buildings eventually planned for the site.