The proposed Life Science Technology Building on the campus of Cornell University is an integral part of the university's much larger program of cross-disciplinary research in the life and related sciences.

The New Life Sciences Initiative (NLSI) was announced by President Hunter Rawlings and Provost Biddy Martin in May of this year. Their announcement has initiated the largest single scientiÞc effort in the history of Cornell, a campuswide program involving investments of up to $500 million. Details on NLSI can be found at http://www.lifesciences.cornell.edu .

The NLSI also will be the largest fund-raising campaign for a single project ever attempted by Cornell. With today's announcement of funding through the New York state Gen*NY*sis program, more than $125 million now has been committed.

Kraig Adler, Cornell's vice provost for life sciences, says the NLSI will be a key element in the development of a high-technology, biology-based industry for New York state. The NLSI, he says, already is having a profound impact, and is redeÞning research, education, and outreach in the life sciences at Cornell. Central to this initiative, he notes, is the existence of a technology infrastructure that can support campuswide research and outreach in the life science technologies that will drive "the biologic revolution."

"Cornell University, by virtue of its longstanding excellence in engineering, agriculture, veterinary and human medicine, and other life and physical sciences, is uniquely positioned to contribute to the New York state's technological and economic development in the area of modern life science, including genomics, proteomics and related fields," Adler says.

The Life Science Technology Building, he observes, will serve as the hub for functional genomics and other interdisciplinary activities on campus and house several important functions. It will contain research laboratories for basic cell biology, biomedical engineering, biophysics, plant genomics, animal biology, and biological statistics and computational biology. It also will include state-of-the-art communication technology to provide links to businesses and other universities, medical schools and research laboratories throughout New York state.The NLSI will support the construction and renovation of several facilities totaling $350 million. Its components include the Life Science Technology Building ($110 million) and the nanotechnology building, Duffield Hall, now being constructed on a re-landscaped Cornell Engineering Quad ($62.5 million). Duffield will become the new home for the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, a national lab.

The NLSI will involve seven colleges, several hundred faculty and up to 60 departments in a comprehensive program of interdisciplinary research and education. Also participating are the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc. at Cornell and the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service. The program will support at least 50 new faculty hires, in addition to two dozen already hired, as well as broaden undergraduate education in the life sciences and create as many as 100 new graduate fellowships.

Cornell's provost has said three "assumptions" are integral to the NLSI. The work must be cross-disciplinary and involve large teams of researchers. No one species, whether mice or fruit flies, will take precedence. And the ethical, legal and social issues of life-sciences research and its application will be addressed by all scientiÞc researchers.