UPMC is building a $300 million research facility in Bloomfield that will offer cutting-edge care and the latest in personalized medicine to improve patient outcomes for the treatment of cancer and diseases related to aging.
The Center for Innovative Science will also generate 375 new jobs in the region, primarily scientific and administrative.
UPMC and University of Pittsburgh are working together to recruit nationally for a scientific leader in genetics and genomics who will guide research on the genetic and environmental causes of cancer, the role of viruses and the normal and abnormal cell changes that occur with aging, says Steven Shapiro, chief medical and scientific officer of UPMC.
The center will bring together leading scientists who will help to develop new approaches and the latest treatments for complex diseases, such as cancer, while reducing over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatments.
"The genomic age is just dawning now and we're hoping to get into it early and big for both our patients and for early discovery," says Shapiro. "Cancer will be front and center, certainly as the most prominent disease we take care of, but we will be looking at many other diseases as well."
The 350,000-square-foot center will be located within the renovated 150,000-square-foot former Ford Motor Co. on Baum Blvd. The plan calls for 200,000-square-feet of new construction on the corner of Centre and Morewood avenues.
Source: Steven Shapiro, UPMC
Writer: Deb Smit
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