UAlbany Launches $100 Million Life Sciences Research Initiative
By Mary Fiess
On November 13, University at Albany President Karen R. Hitchcock launched an initiative that will invest more than $100 million in public and private funds to build world-class strength in University research capabilities in the life sciences.

The keystone of this effort is the University’s new $78 million, 194,000-square-foot Life Sciences Research Building, now rising on campus. Hitchcock announced the initiative at a symbolic cornerstone-laying ceremony next to the site.

Gov. George Pataki had been scheduled to join Hitchcock at the event but was unable to attend in the wake of the plane crash the day before in Queens. But Hitchcock read a message Pataki sent to all attending the event.

“Our $3 billion SUNY/CUNY capital plan is revitalizing campuses all across our State - producing spectacular new facilities such as this one at UAlbany. This new building will re-energize the UAlbany campus, provide students and researchers with access to state-of-the-art labs and equipment, and make the Capital Region a national leader in cutting-edge life sciences research,” said Pataki.

“We are extremely grateful to Governor Pataki for his visionary leadership in proposing the $3 billion capital plan, which included this wonderful high-tech facility. We live at a time of remarkable breakthroughs in our understanding of the fundamental processes of life, and we can envision even more remarkable possibilities - ranging from new treatments for disease to new approaches to world hunger. Our Life Sciences Research Initiative will position the University at Albany at the cutting edge of these critical research areas,” said Hitchcock.

“This public-private partnership will move our University and region to the next level in the area of life sciences. Our new building will provide the state-of-the-art space and facilities essential to support the collaborative enterprises that characterize so much research today, and these facilities will enable us to recruit and retain world-class life sciences researchers and research teams,” said Hitchcock.

“This building and the research it supports will build on and complement the outstanding research in genomics and biomedical sciences that is under way at our East Campus. The University’s expertise in nanotechnology, microelectronics and advanced materials is already being applied to biological and medical problems, and this new initiative will strengthen such cross-disciplinary research efforts. All these collaborative efforts will help build the region’s biotechnology industry and drive economic growth,” Hitchcock said.

New York State is providing $65 million of the building’s construction costs through the $3 billion capital plan for the State University of New York and City University of New York systems. Approximately $5 million more will come from research grants like the National Institutes of Health grant that has already been awarded to develop a fermentation facility in the building. The University is launching a fund-raising drive for $20 million in private gifts for the Life Sciences Research Initiative - $8 million in support for the building and $12 million to recruit and retain nationally-prominent research teams to the University. This campaign, coupled with additional federal funding and University support, comprises a total investment of more than $100 million to build world-class life sciences research at the University.

Deliberately designed with flexible laboratory space, the Life Sciences Research Building will ultimately house 39 research groups from a variety of life science disciplines. Researchers from departments including psychology, biology, and chemistry, who are working in areas related to the life sciences, will share the facilities and space, configured to encourage formal and informal interaction between research groups to foster synergy among researchers.

Equipment and technologies critical to advance discovery across the spectrum of disciplines will include those necessary to promote research in genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics, microarray, mouse transgenesis, cell culture, and imaging, as well as mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

The University’s Center for Comparative Functional Genomics, established on the East Campus in 1999 to advance understanding of human genetic processes, boasts the kinds of sophisticated facilities that will be part of the Life Sciences Research Building. The expertise of CCFG researchers and the core facilities have, in turn, helped attract companies to the East Campus and major research funding. CCFG Co-directors Paulette McCormick and Albert Millis see the Life Sciences Research Initiative as critical to the success of their program on the East Campus. “Already we see a positive impact on our efforts to attract new faculty, and when this state-of-the-art facility is completed, we will be equipped to support a critical mass of researchers doing cutting-edge molecular biology,” said McCormick.

“The physical infrastructure is absolutely essential to attract the best scientists. To paraphrase the film ‘Field of Dreams’: If you build it, they will come,” said Millis.

Research teams to be recruited through the new initiative are expected to fall into such areas as transgenesis and genetic manipulation, structural analysis of proteins and DNA, function of biomolecules at cellular and organismal levels, and population genetics, molecular evolution, and behavior.

Also in the facility will be a 3,000-square-foot fermentation facility that will enable researchers to grow the large amounts of yeast and bacterial cells that are needed to purify individual enzymes and protein complexes on a large scale. A National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant totaling $619,855 is helping support construction of that center.

“The construction of this state-of-the-art Life Sciences Research Building is yet another example of our strong commitment to the promotion of the biotechnology industry in New York State. This facility, part of a $100 million initiative, truly establishes the University at Albany as a premier research institution,” said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno in a statement.

“The Assembly Majority committed its support to the UAlbany Life Sciences Research Building because it recognized the need for a biotech facility of this stature in order to attract the cutting-edge research of world-class scientists pursuing the latest and most promising technologies of our time,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in a statement. “Biomedical research holds much potential not only for fighting disease but also for creating jobs. The top-flight research and training to take place at this building will strengthen New York’s foothold in biomedicine and provide employment opportunities for generations to come.”

“Modern science is now breaking down barriers between traditional disciplines in order to solve modern complex medical problems. Indeed, today’s scientists need to know more and more about areas outside traditional areas of expertise. This magnificent new building will gather the University at Albany’s leading research minds under one roof to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration in the fields of biology, chemistry and bio-chemistry. The research conducted by our scientists in this new facility will lead to breakthroughs that will ensure New York’s social and economic well-being,” said SUNY Chancellor Robert King in a statement.

SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas Egan and Assemblyman John McEneny joined Hitchcock at the November 13 event and also lauded the initiative.

The new Life Sciences Research Building, located adjacent to the University’s existing Biology Building on the east side of the uptown campus, is scheduled for completion in 2004-05. Northland Associates of Syracuse is the contractor for the building. Hillier/New York, one of the largest architectural firms in the U.S. and the recipient of more than 250 awards for design excellence, is the architect.

Thomas and Constance D’Ambra Pledge $1 Million
By Mary Fiess
Announcing their desire to “kick-start” the campaign for $20 million in private gifts, Dr. Thomas D’Ambra and his wife Constance pledged up to $1 million to match donations from University faculty, staff and friends in support of the $100 million Life Sciences Research Initiative. The D’Ambras made the surprise announcement at the cornerstone-laying event November 13.

D’Ambra, CEO of Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI) and the chair of the fund-raising effort for the initiative, also pledged “to work hard to meet this ambitious fund-raising objective because I believe in the potential of the region, in the potential of the many researchers already here, and in the potential of what can be achieved in competing on a national level.

“A strong academic infrastructure is the core of all national clusters of the biotechnology industry. This is a great first step for the region.” AMRI, co-founded by D’Ambra and Chester Opalka, is a vital core of the region’s developing strength in biotechnology and has been an essential partner in the transformation of the University’s East Campus into a thriving center for biotechnology.

AMRI is a chemistry-centered healthcare R&D company focused on the discovery and development of new prescription drugs. The company works with many leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and genomics companies.

“As CEO of AMRI, I am committed to the economic vitality of Tech Valley and to making a contribution to sustaining and increasing economic growth in the future. Each new biotech-related business that is being created locally knows that its growth and success depend on an educated workforce and strength in life sciences research.

“We can’t do it alone. The partnerships we have formed with the University and other regional academic institutions will continue to make it possible to draw on interdisciplinary collaborations, researchers and resources. And, critical to the future, we look to the University to produce more top graduates in the life sciences, enabling us to hire the highly educated workforce we need to succeed and grow,” said D’Ambra.

“Our gift will be gladly given because we believe that the University, under Karen Hitchcock, is taking big steps to become nationally recognized, and to compete on the world stage with the top research centers in the world. We welcome and encourage this direction, and stand ready to applaud and cheer your success,” said D’Ambra.

Through the life sciences fund-raising effort, the University is seeking $8 million in private support for the building and $12 million to recruit and retain nationally prominent research teams. In addition to the pledge by Thomas and Constance D’Ambra, the University has received a $1 million gift to support life sciences research from the estate of alumna Carla Delray.

“We are deeply grateful to Tom and Constance D’Ambra for their tremendous generosity and leadership. Our Life Sciences Research Initiative will only reach its full potential through such support,” said President Hitchcock.

Donors to the Life Sciences Research Initiative will have a wide range of “naming” opportunities, from endowed professorships and research spaces to the building itself. For more information on ways to support this campaign, contact Vice President for Advancement Robert Ashton at (518) 437-4770.

Allen Ballard Receives Honorary Doctorate from Tuskegee University
Allen Ballard, a Collins Fellows and professor of history, political science, and Africana studies, received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Tuskegee University at Tuskegee’s Scholarship Convocation on November 11.

Ballard, a Phi Beta Kappa, challenged the students to “make the library your home. Make learning an adventure.” Finding solutions to problems “has its own excitement,” Ballard said.

“You can’t talk about black education without talking about Tuskegee,” he said, encouraging students to broaden their horizons. “Don’t be narrow,” he counseled the student scholars.

“I’m not saying it is easy for you,” he continued. He told the students they would face “different obstacles that must be treated differently” than the problems faced by previous generations.

“It is hard to be a student,” he said. “There will always be money problems,” and sometimes problems back home. “Sometimes you will want to study, and the people around you will not want to study. You have to steer a steady course,” he warned the students. “They [those who don’t want to study] won’t have the commitment you have.”

But he asked the students to consider the “constrictions” faced by previous generations. And, he insisted, “if the old folk did it, with all the constrictions around them, you can do it.”

Never forget who brought you here, Ballard told the students. “When you look back over where He brought us from, and the beauty of its people, all that is due to God’s grace and mercy,” he said. “With that grace and mercy, there is nothing you can’t achieve.”

Ballard has been a Fulbright scholar and has visited the former Soviet Union, where he also spent a year on the U.S.-Soviet Exchange Program. He has a master’s degree from Harvard University in Soviet Union regional studies, and a Ph.D. from Harvard in government.

Ballard is the author of Where I’m Bound, a novel about African-American soldiers in the Civil War. Published in 2001 by Simon and Schuster, the book won the Best First Novelist prize of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and the Washington Post Notable Book of the Year award. Ballard is also the author of The Education of Black Folk: The Afro-American Struggle for Knowledge in White America, published in 1973 by Harper & Row.

Prior to joining UAlbany in 1986, Ballard spent 35 years at City College and City University of New York, where he served as an assistant dean, associate dean, university dean for academic development, and university dean of faculty.

UAlbany-Siena Rivalry Renewed
By Brian DePasquale
Senior forward Dwayne Archbold scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half, as Siena held off Albany, 60-48, before 10,285 fans at the Pepsi Arena on November 27. The two schools were playing for the first time since Feb. 3, 1977, following a 25-year hiatus.

Both teams struggled offensively in the opening half, as Siena (2-4) built a 20-13 halftime advantage. Albany (0-4) closed within 22-20 early in the final stanza on a three-point field goal by E.J. Gallup, who netted 25 of his game-high 36 points in the period. Gallup’s total was the most by a Great Dane player since Barry Cavanaugh struck for 36 on March 1, 1978.

The Saints, who were playing their home opener, came right back with eight straight points. Archbold buried back-to-back 3-pointers, before Mark Price converted a driving layup. Siena increased its lead to as much as 13, and still was ahead, 41-29, with 8:20 left as James Clinton made a turnaround baseline jumper.

Albany responded with 14 of the game’s next 18 points to slice the deficit. Gallup, who made seven of 10 shots from beyond the arc, canned a three-point shot to get his club within 45-43 with 3:17 remaining. But the Saints went on a 9-1 run to take control. J.J. Harvey highlighted the decisive spurt, when he nailed a three-point field goal with the shot clock about to expire for a 50-44 lead.

“I was proud of that effort,” Albany coach Scott Beeten said. “We played hard, especially on the defensive end of the floor. E.J. is a tough son of a gun, who showed no fear and played with guts.”

Siena’s Price, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, totaled 10 points and eight rebounds, while Andy Cavo also scored 10. Both teams shot exactly 28.6 percent from the field on the night.

Women’s Basketball
Junior forward Gunta Basko totaled 17 points, 12 rebounds and nine steals in leading Siena to a 76-59 non-conference victory over Albany on November 27 in front of 10,285 fans at the Pepsi Arena.

Siena (1-3) held a 46-24 lead at the intermission. UAlbany (0-3), which trailed by 30 points at the four-minute mark in the first half, was able to claw its way back into the contest. The Great Danes used a 9-0 run midway through the final stanza to cut the margin to 57-46 with 8:22 to play as Alicia Learn stole the ball and converted a fastbreak layup. Jess McGinlay scored five of her team-high 18 points during the outburst. However, the Saints posted eight unanswered and brought the spread back to 19 points on Jolene Johnston’s free throws with little more than six minutes remaining. Johnston equaled a career-high with 21 points, converting seven of seven from the charity stripe.

In the opening stanza, Siena used a 29-8 spurt early on to take a commanding 35-12 advantage on Mary McKissack’s three pointer. McKissack canned eight of her 10 first-half points during the stretch. The Saints shot 48.6 percent from the field in the period and caused 16 Albany turnovers. The Great Danes trailed by 30 at the 3:56 mark, but reeled off eight consecutive markers to slice the halftime deficit to 22.

“We had a fear factor going on from our opening possession through much of the first half,” said Albany coach Mari Warner, whose squad committed 29 turnovers. “Our squad dug a hole early in the game. I challenged our heart at halftime and we responded with a much-improved final half. Siena’s starting group really stepped it up and proved to the difference.”

Freshman center Danielle Hutcheson produced a double-double for the second straight game with 14 points and 10 rebounds for UAlbany, which shot a season-best 43 percent. Sarah Sweetland came off the bench and finished with a career-high nine points. Erica Anderson was the fourth Saints starter to reach twin figures with 17 points and eight assists.

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