Messenger - Vol. 3, No. 3, Page 5 Spring 1994 Works of Progress Construction date set for biotechnology center With federal funding now assured, ground will be broken in October for a new $7 million, state-of-the-art research laboratory at the College of Agricultural Sciences in Newark, Del. The agricultural biotechnology center, which will be located east of Townsend Hall, will be the first building on campus to include biocontainment laboratories, permitting research on avian flu and other exotic poultry diseases. Vaccine development for poultry diseases is crucial to the $1.26 billion Delmarva Peninsula poultry industry, which produced about 10 percent of the nation's broiler chickens in 1992. Half the cost of the biotechnology center will be funded by the federal government, with the balance provided by the state, the University and the poultry industry. Although major emphasis will be placed on animal vaccine development, researchers from other areas of the University will be encouraged to use the facilities. Construction is expected to be completed by the fall of 1995.