Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory breaks ground on Neuroscience Research Complex
Long Island scientists will study the wiring of the human brain while searching for cures to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and autism at a new neuroscience center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, officials announced Monday during a groundbreaking ceremony.
The 36,437-square-foot $57 million Neuroscience Research Complex will include three buildings focused on neurodegenerative diseases, brain-body physiology, quantitative biology, and neuro-artificial intelligence.
"These buildings are going to house cutting-edge research that is … going to transform areas of neuroscience that [are] going to be the science of the 21st century, " said Bruce Stillman, president and chief executive of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. "We have identified areas of research, particularly in neuroscience, that are crucial for the future of health for this country."
Empire State Development is providing $30 million for the project as part of its Transformative Investment Program, with funding allocated to Long Island in the state's 2017 budget. The remaining $27 million will come from private funds raised by the laboratory.
Construction of the Neuroscience Research Complex is expected to be complete by December 2025, officials said.
"This is a critical project here on Long Island," said Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who attended the outdoor ceremony. "It will provide incredible opportunities for neuroscience research that will drive innovative medical discoveries and enhance the growing life sciences industry on Long Island. … This is about driving innovation and discovery around the human brain. It's fundamentally about human health."
Scientists at the Neuroscience Research Complex, officials said, will focus on cognition and mapping the wiring diagram of the human brain, focused on developmental neurological disorders such as autism and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Additional phases of the project are expected to include a dedicated neuro-artificial intelligence building, space for meetings and educational programs, and a pancreatic cancer therapeutics testing facility.
"The work of neuroscience at the lab is just one part of our expansion," said Marilyn Simons, chair of the board of trustees at the laboratory. "We're also going to bring scientists from all over the world to exchange ideas so they can learn about new technologies."
The new research complex will be built on the grounds of a seven-acre parking lot on the Nassau side of the Cold Spring Harbor campus. An underground parking lot will be built to replace the lost parking spaces.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is considered one of the world’s preeminent research institutions, with more than 1,100 employees on Long Island. Its researchers have won eight Nobel Prizes in physiology and medicine and the laboratory hosts about 9,000 scientists from across the globe every year.
Kevin Law, chairman of Empire State Development, said Cold Spring Harbor is a key part of Long Island's biotech and life sciences research hub, along with Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Northwell's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Farmingdale State College’s Center for Computer Science and Information Technology Systems and Long Island University''s School of Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine.
"You have this research corridor … creating and conducting amazing research that is going to be translational and leading to discoveries and cures and products and patents," Law said. "And so it's really exciting."
Stillman described the new center as the largest campus expansion project in the laboratory's 130-year history.
"We're also aiming for collaborative efforts by our neuroscientists to understand how, when individuals have cancer, it affects brain function and whole body physiology, effectively understanding the treatment of cancer and treating the whole patient rather than individual tumors," Stillman said.
In 2019, Cold Spring Harbor opened the Center for Therapeutics Research, a $75 million state-funded cancer research center aimed at advancing research into breast cancer, leukemia, autism, obesity, diabetes and lung cancer therapeutics. The state contributed $25 million to the project to cover construction costs, while Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory raised the remaining $50 million.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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