The public will get its first look Nov. 13 at a new facility that will produce test amounts of therapeutic anti-cancer agents for clinical trials. The facility was developed through a partnership between Cornell and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
There will be a reception at 204 Stocking Hall at 9 a.m., followed by remarks, between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m., given by Cornell President Hunter Rawlings; Lloyd J. Old, director of the Ludwig Institute; and Carl A. Batt, director of the new facility. There will a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 301 Stocking Hall at 10:30 a.m., and between 11 a.m. and noon, visitors will hear a description of the facility and view its production area from an adjoining classroom. Production in the unit will not begin for at least six months.
It took about two years to complete the $2 million Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility behind the nearly century-old façade of Stocking Hall (in which Cornell students once took dairy-science classes). The facility consists of a series of clean rooms for the production of recombinant proteins. The rooms are kept clean by pumping air through a series of filters that remove particulates as small as bacteria.
The area of Stocking Hall that houses the facility has been renovated to meet GMP regulations. These regulations are used by pharmaceutical, medical device and food manufacturers as they produce and test products that people use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued GMP regulations as the minimum requirements for production of therapeutic agents.
The Stocking Hall facility is the second bioproduction unit for the Ludwig Institute. The first was opened in 1995 in Melbourne, Australia. Initially, said Batt, who also is a Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of food science at Cornell, the facility will produce tumor antigens that hold promise as immuno-therapeutic agents. "The GMP renovation has reinvented the third floor of Stocking Hall, and it is state-of-the-art," said Batt.
The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, which began forging its partnership with Cornell in 1999, is a not-for-profit global research organization that addresses the complex nature of cancer through a range of scientific disciplines. There are more than 900 scientists and support staff affiliated with the Ludwig Institute around the world, and they conduct basic and clinical research, with a focus on genetics, tumor immunology, cell biology and signaling.
To tour the new facility Nov. 13, call Rebecca Coil at 255-0114 or contact her at rlc12@cornell.edu. Space for the tour will be limited.
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