Bronx College has new Research Center

Real Estate Weekly, April 3, 2002

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has completed construction of its three-story Gross Magnetic Resonance Research Center on the College's Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Bronx.

The $14.7 million, 18,900-SF center, designed by Charles Knapp, of Shuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron Architects, took two years to build. Bovis Land Lease Corp. began constructing the building in November 2000. A special ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the building's completion, will take place on Apr. 17.

"The Gross Center is the only facility in the metropolitan area, and one of only six in the world, to use sophisticated high-field magnets to provide imagery on the human body and its cellular components with precision and detail that is not possible with conventional MRIs," said Dr. Dominick P. Purpura, the dean of the medical school. "It will be a vital resource for our students and faculty and for researchers from throughout the New York area."

The new center will house the most advanced magnets ever developed for medical research. "Magnetic resonance enables researchers to open a biochemical window to the human body and allows scientists to study entities as small and static as a protein or as large and active as the human brain," explained Dr. Hoby Hetherington, director of the Gross Center.

"We can now actually visualize the brain in action and determine how certain compounds effect the brain and other parts of the body."

Magnetic resonance can be used to measure nerve loss and damage, to assess how well a body organ is functioning, and how glucose is metabolized. "This new technology allows us to develop new techniques for diagnosing different diseases. We can also use these methods to learn more about a disease and design new therapies or optimize existing ones," said Hetherington.