The Pharmacy Research Building (PRB) is a 37,000-square-foot research facility. The building has space for 14 principal investigators and more than 80 graduate students and research assistants. Construction started on Feb. 8, 2016 with faculty moving in the building in May 2017. The building was officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 5, 2017.
The PRB provides state-of-the-art facilities for research spanning the drug discovery and development process, including molecular characterization of disease states, identification and validation of targets for new drugs, drug candidate evaluation, and drug delivery and disposition. Disease states under investigation in the PRB include diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, PTSD, atherosclerosis, bacterial endocarditis, and a variety of cancers. The building also contains a vivarium that will house rat and animal models of human disease states that will be used by investigators throughout Auburn University.
The PRB is located within Auburn's Health Sciences Sector. The research building is conveniently located between the Auburn School of Nursing and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, helping facilitate even more collaboration among the programs, along with other units on campus.
On each floor, several faculty members share a single, large, laboratory space. The absence of walls dividing that research space will facilitate collaborations and dynamic laboratory space assignments. The building contains faculty offices, research facilities, graduate student office space, and spaces to foster research collaborations.