UCLA dental school to build new cancer research facility

Sep 13, 2009

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry has received a major infusion of construction funding for the creation of the UCLA Yip Center for Oral/Head and Neck Oncology Research.

As a result of funds made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the National Institute of Health's National Center for Research Resources has awarded more than $5 million for the state-of-the-art complex, which will consolidate and expand the school's ongoing translational research in the biology, detection, and treatment of oral cancer, according to the UCLA dental school.

"This visionary funding will enable the dental school to become a nexus of multidisciplinary, collaborative research," said No-Hee Park, D.M.D., Ph.D., dean of the UCLA School of Dentistry and the principal investigator for the construction grant. "Our goal is to make UCLA the home of the premier head and neck and oral oncology research program in the nation, a place where we find new methods for the early diagnosis and treatment of this devastating disease."

Existing outmoded laboratories within the dental school building in UCLA's Center for the Health Sciences will be demolished to construct a 6,660-sq-ft facility comprising a large, open wet laboratory, a central core support facility, and a conference room. The new lab will include chemical fume hoods, tissue-culture support, and a dark room, and will be specifically designed for state-of-the-art genomics and proteomics research.

The school's new research facility will be named for Felix and Mildred Yip, noted philanthropists within Southern California's Asian-American community who have been generous supporters of UCLA and the School of Dentistry. In 2004, a pledge of support from the Yips was instrumental in the dental school securing a fundable score for this major construction project.

Construction planning for the Yip Center has already begun. The demolition phase of the project is expected to start in 2011, with a projected completion date sometime in 2013.