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 JUSTTHEFACTS The Whitehead Biomedical Opened: November 2001 |
by Marlene Goldman  ndrew Gewirtz knows firsthand how rubbing elbows with other scientists or having a "coffeepot" conversation can turn an intriguing idea into a discovery with huge potential.
Last year, the biochemist isolated a bacterial protein called "flagellin," which he suspected causes inflammation in the intestinal tract. "But I could only look at one gene at a time," Gewirtz recalls. "Then I found out there was a researcher down the hall who specializes in microarray technology and could analyze thousands of genes at once." One thing led to another, and pretty soon pathologist Andrew Neish confirmed that flagellin activated many human genes involved in inflammation and is likely an important component in causing a variety of intestinal diseases. Later, over a cup of coffee in the break room (there are two on every floor of the new Whitehead Biomedical Research Building), Gewirtz and another researcher chatted about their work. "Dan Kalman was on a different floor in our old building, so I hardly ever saw him there," says Gewirtz. "I didn't know that he'd been studying receptors like those I'd discovered in cells of the intestine that become inflamed when they bind with flagellin." Gewirtz also found out that Kalman had access to powerful equipment -- a deconvolution microscope that can visualize receptors on cell surfaces. "By sharing results and equipment, we're much further along now in understanding inflammatory bowel disease than we would have been on our own," says Gewirtz. "Our collaborations have shaved years of time off our research." Gewirtz, Neish, and Kalman are among the some 75 members of the Pathology Department who not that long ago were dispersed, sometimes isolated, in at least five labs scattered across campus and as far away as Grady Hospital. Their move to the new Whitehead Building, along with other basic scientists from across the Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC), is expected to promote collaboration within open labs (and yes, over coffee), speed up discovery, and ultimately result in new therapies to treat diseases and conditions. |
  These enthalpy wheels are part of an ener- gy recovery system that added $450,000 to the Whitehead Building's price tag but will save Emory about $100,000 in energy costs per year. |
 he potential for discovery sparked by casual conversation and proximity was taken seriously by the architects, facility planners, and administrators who met every Wednesday for a year to talk about how the new Whitehead Building would look, feel, and function.
Tops on their list was fitting as much laboratory space for as many investigators as possible into what would be the largest new building on the Emory campus. Its massive 325,000-square-foot bulk needed to be in scale with the rest of the campus and the neighborhoods nearby. The labs had to be state of the art, and there had to be plenty of room for mice -- 130,000 of them. Not only did Emory need as much lab space as possible, those labs needed to be distinctly different from the self-contained ones of the past. "One of the most difficult issues was how to lay out the labs to reflect how basic science has evolved in the 21st century," says Cell Biology Chair Barry Shur. "When I was in graduate school in the 1970s, science was more individual. Technology was simpler, you were trained in a particular technique, and you worked by yourself at the bench. Today, science is so technically sophisticated that our scientists can't do good science in a room by themselves. They need to bump into other scientists in an interactive space; they need to talk to geneticists, neurobiologists, cell biologists, and electrophysiologists. The physical barriers of self-contained labs hinder good research." Now, five years after Shur came to Emory on the promise of first-class lab space, his department occupies the fourth floor and part of the fifth floor of the Whitehead Building. "The new space is spectacular," he says. "It encourages the kind of research that I was recruited to Emory to do." Two other basic science departments from the medical school -- Human Genetics and Physiology -- are also housed in the building, along with the Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and research programs in the departments of Medicine and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. |
  The Whitehead Building fosters sharing of ideas, as scientists Andrew Neish, Andrew Gerwitz, and Dan Kalman have discovered.  Basic scientists, such as Physiology's Peter Yue, Billi Jean Duke, and Ollie Kelly, work in natural light that bathes 90% of the labs and offices in the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building. |
he Whitehead Building's open-module design not only represents a change in how research space at Emory is configured but a change in culture -- one that admittedly was a tough sell. Even those who grouse about having to share space admit that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Like many new research facilities being built across the country today, most of the laboratories in the Whitehead Building encourage interaction among researchers, postdocs, and students, as well as various disciplines. With the inevitable ups and downs of research funding, the open labs are more flexible in terms of assigning space, expanding and compressing as programs emerge or complete their natural cycles.
The 700-square-foot modules may be smaller than what most Emory scientists are used to, but "the space is much more suitable," says Shur. "In my opinion, the design is about as good as a lab can be." There are Internet connections at every bench space, with many hardwired into Georgia's first $500,000 high-speed confocal microscope, which allows scientists to measure and manipulate electrical and chemical signals in neurons in real time. Everyone, including students, has bench space, and places to securely stow their valuables. While floors were built generically for the greatest flexibility, departments have customized some to fit their particular disciplines. Human Genetics Department Chair Steve Warren plans to triple the number of full-time faculty over the next few years, representing the largest expansion of any academic genetics department in the nation. About a third will be involved in bioinformation and computation genetics and biology and will require more traditional office space for computers. Human genetics will also use its expanded facilities to build on its renowned research programs in fragile X and Down syndromes, Huntington disease, and metabolic disorders. A new Center for Medical Genomics will give Emory scientists access to the most advanced system available for automated, high-volume DNA extraction and analysis. Warren says the open-lab configurations are better for teaching graduate students and postdocs who can be close to their mentors and the faculty who are overseeing them. "There are fewer barriers to communications, and that's why it works so well." Scientists also have better access to their colleagues in the neighboring Rollins Research Center, which is connected to the Whitehead Building on five floors. Every floor in the Whitehead Building has conference rooms and break rooms, and there's a 150-seat auditorium on the first floor for lectures and presentations. Two lower floors house small animals -- mainly mice, many of which have come from other facilities on campus. A dedicated animal elevator keeps the animals away from the public. The lower floors also house the largest of the building's seven, Level 3 high-containment labs designed to protect researchers who work with highly infectious agents. On the ground floor, (the entry level) etched glass portraits and plaques tell the story of the Whitehead family, for whom the building is named. The Whitehead Biomedical Research Building was constructed, and its laboratories built and furnished, with funding from foundations created by members of the Whitehead family, who built their wealth on the bottling and distribution of Coca-Cola at the turn of the 20th century -- then gave it all away to the betterment of humankind. |
  The Whitehead Building is one of only 13 facilities in the nation in line to be certi- fied as "green" by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environment Design program. |
 rom the top floor of the Whitehead Building, the 65 faculty and staff in the medical school's Physiology Department feast on a breathtaking panorama in all directions: downtown Atlanta to the south, Perimeter Mall to the west, Stone Mountain to the east, and Kennesaw to the north. That's quite a change for scientists who have spent much of their research life at Emory in the windowless warrens of 1920s-era buildings.
"Coming over here we worried about agoraphobia, but our faculty have adapted well to sunshine," quips Physiology Chair Robert Gunn. There's a lot of it. Floor-to-ceiling walls of windows wrap around the building, bathing 90% of the labs and offices in natural light. "It's wonderfully designed space," Gunn says. "The only tradeoff is being farther away from the clinical researchers and basic scientists in the Woodruff Memorial Research Building." For a department chair who can give and take away space, the open configuration is a plus. "Space is always an issue among faculty," Gunn says. "When we get new grants, we need more people and more space, and that's difficult to find in a traditional design, which can only be increased by blocks. With this design, it's easy to assign an extra four linear feet of space on a bench if needed." And how have faculty responded? Some have been a little leery, Warren admits, "myself included. But we've adapted and for the most part love it. I wouldn't want to go back to a traditional setup." Kalman from pathology adds that dozens of collaborations now happen or will take place in the Whitehead Building because of common interests and perspectives. "The new space encourages a collegial environment," he says, "but the real commitment is on Emory's part to bring in a whole slew of faculty with up-to-date ideas in genetics, cellular biology, and immunology into a common space with modern equipment." Having class A space will certainly help attract strong candidates, says Allan Levey, who heads the new Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, where health sciences faculty collaborate to study common brain diseases involving injury to brain cells. The interdisciplinary nature of his center is a perfect fit for the Whitehead Building, whose open-space interior design embodies the "center without walls" concept. "Traditional department boundaries are the dinosaurs of research," says Levey, who notes that the new center brings together clinical and basic researchers, including neurologists, cell biologists, pathologists, pharmacologists, and physiologists, to address the intricacies of neurodegenerative diseases and develop better ways to treat them. |
  Ventilation ports on the roof are symbolic of the millions in savings expected from one of the most environmentally progres- sive research buildings in the country. Millions of gallons of water from con- densate will be piped from air-handling units back to chiller plants. Millions of gallons of collected rainwater will be used for irrigation. |
rom start to finish, this new landmark on the Emory campus has set records. Completed one month ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget, the Whitehead Building's birth is an auspicious beginning for a facility conceived to nurture discovery and, ultimately, quality of life for future generations.
It is the result of health sciences center-wide research planning begun five years ago to look at what areas of science held the most promise for discovery in the 21st century. Those areas are reflected today in the occupants of the Whitehead Building. "We determined that we could not move to the next level of discovery without this building," Mike Johns, executive vice president for health affairs, said at the building's dedication. "We needed a living, breathing structure that would help us attract and retain the best researchers in the world." However, the new building was oversubscribed even before the first researchers moved in last November. "We built the largest space we could for the site, but it's insufficient for continued growth," says Shur. Every space is already filled or committed. In many departments or centers, such as the Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, some faculty will be housed in other buildings across campus. Some relief is in sight. The new Winship Cancer Institute building now under construction will include three floors of research space. Two partial floors of the Woodruff Memorial Research Building are also being renovated. While it may seem that the WHSC is never satisfied with what it has, the need for space boils down to a more philosophical question of "what should Emory be?" Emory is still well below the benchmark where it needs to be to move into the top 10 research universities in the country. Another "Whitehead" would help the WHSC reach that goal, even as the top 10 schools are also expanding their research capacities. Shur believes that space is the currency of research success. But such success goes beyond stepping up into an elite group of research universities, which arguably will help us attract more scientists and funding. More findings and publications are important markers, but the ultimate goal, is better understanding of diseases and conditions. "It's understanding what is behind a neurological disease or a heart condition or a cancer," says Shur. "These are the real determinants of success, but we can't get there without the tools, without the infrastructure. Space is important to recruiting the faculty and building the programs that will ultimately lead to those discoveries."
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he Whitehead Biomedical Research Building brings together the basic sciences (the "bio" in biomedical) with medical problems we want to solve. Through "translational science," researchers seek to translate knowledge into patient care.
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 ot only are scientists in the new Whitehead Building enjoying pristine offices and laboratories, they also have access to some one-of-a-kind equipment that will help them do their work more quickly and efficiently.
"One of our goals is to have equipment that covers the needs of many investigators, from the time a DNA sample first comes into the laboratory, all the way through to the results on the other end," says human geneticist Neil Lamb, who directs the new Center for Medical Genomics. "As genomics research becomes more sophisticated, the equipment gets larger, more expensive, and more technically challenging. It isn't feasible for each investigator to purchase all that equipment, nor practical for each laboratory to have people trained in how to use it. The learning curve is too steep. We train two or three dedicated technicians, so no one else has to worry about it and you don't have a lot of hands in the soup." A bar-code system carefully tracks each sample's flow through the lab so that researchers can follow the progress of their projects without scribbling information on test tubes. The computerized system allows samples to be stored in the system while researchers gather large enough population samples to complete their studies. Without the bar-coding system, each step in the lab process must be recorded by hand in individual notebooks. The center's liquid handler -- a robotic chef-of-the-laboratory -- dispenses liquids that prepare solutions for analysis. It extracts high-quality DNA and adjusts concentrations by grabbing and shaking and stirring and pouring, so that every sample has the same amount of genetic material. Other machines identify mutations and polymorphisms in the DNA, comparing DNA across a group of individuals and looking for differences. Even with this gene-by-gene approach, says Lamb, the higher throughput of the robotic equipment allows scientists to accomplish in a couple of weeks what would take six to nine months manually. And a robotic freezer -- one of only four in the United States -- stores up to 1,000 plates of sample tissue, each bar-coded and computerized. A robot arm reaches out to accept and deposit each plate inside, eliminating any need to open the freezer door. A nitrogen gas purge removes all humidity as the sample enters the freezer. |
  Without robotic assistance from this liquid handler, DNA extraction by hand requires three hours to process. |
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Two floors up in cell biology, newly arrived investigator Beth Finch with the help of engineers and computer experts designed a half-million-dollar laser scanning confocal microscope to study how signaling occurs inside neurons. Neurons are faced with a problem most human beings are familiar with -- receiving multiple signals from different sources at the same time and having to process them into one outgoing message that makes sense. Finch's imaging system uses dyes to represent different signaling pathways, and she manipulates the signals and analyzes the result with computers. "You can't just call up the company and order a system like this one," says Cell Biology Chair Barry Shur. "It's a very unusual resource, because it's so sophisticated and individualized. Only a handful of these are available anywhere in the world." |
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Copyright © Emory University, 2002. All Rights Reserved.
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Web version by Jaime Henriquez.