Birmingham's SRI plans facility for drug discovery
Published: Friday, February 11, 2011, 8:00 AM
By Hannah Wolfson -- The Birmingham News
Southern Research Institute is looking at plans to spend $14 million to construct a new research building on its Southside campus.
The building would be dedicated mostly to drug discovery research, according to Southern Research's president and chief executive, Jack Secrist.
"This will allow us to do state of the art medicinal chemistry," said Secrist, speaking last week to the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The funds are part of a $20 million federal recovery zone bond being issued through the city of Birmingham. Much of the remainder will go toward developing a new 18,000-square-foot engineering building at Southern Research's Oxmoor location.
Secrist said the 40,000 square-foot building next to Quinlan Castle would help the organization continue its momentum on drug discovery. The project still requires approval of Southern Research's finance committee and board, but Secrist said he hopes to have the facility completed by the end of 2012.