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| Vol. 23, No. 3 |
| February 15, 2001 |
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A&M Establishes New Research Center By KAY KENDALL Texas A&M University Institute of Biosciences and Technology The Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation is donating $750,000 over a five-year period to Texas A&M University's Albert B. Alkek Institute of Biosciences and Technology. The grant will establish the Margaret Alkek Center for Comparative Biotechnology Research, and will help the institute to fulfill its long-term goal of exploiting natural linkages between animal agricultural research, veterinary medicine and human medicine through a new research center. New laboratories will be constructed on the institute's fourth floor for faculty recruits hired to conduct research in the new center. The center will build on current research strengths at the institute, which include the Center for Cancer Biology and Nutrition, Center for Extracellular Matrix Biology, Center for Genome Research, W.M. Keck Center for Informatics, and Center for Animal Biotechnology and Genomics. Faculty will be recruited in structural biology, a specialty relevant to the institute's goal of understanding structure and functions of key proteins associated with cancer, infectious diseases, viral infections, and fertility. The outcome of this research will be rational drug design for new therapeutic compounds that will improve human health. Collaborating with Texas A&M University's College of Engineering, new faculty will be recruited for development of highly sophisticated and noninvasive imaging technologies. These will be useful for very early detection and treatment of numerous types of cancers. In collaboration with Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine, other faculty will be recruited to enhance programs in laboratory animal medicine and for comparative medicine studies of infectious diseases.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/02_15_01/page_03.html |