SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Sen. Harry Reid today celebrated the opening of the Center for Molecular Medicine at the University Of Nevada School Of Medicine.
Reid secured federal funding to support the construction of the center that will also house portions of several university departments, including research laboratories, as well as the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro Immune Disease. The new medical center will allow UNR to do groundbreaking research on chronic disease, the effects of aging and cancer. Reid’s prepared remarks are included below.
“When we look at this beautiful building, we can’t help but be blown away by all the effort and resources that went into it. We look forward to the decades of experiments experts will conduct within iT and await the countless pages of research and smart, young scientists who will come out of it.
“Those scientists who will soon get to work in this Center’s laboratories know the importance of working together. It’s a team game. And that’s the same spirit that made today possible–the willingness of the public and private sectors to work as one, trying together to reach a common goal.
“It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the magnitude and significance of this Center: It is UNR’s first new medical research facility in a generation. The cost of creating it has reached high into the tens of millions of dollars. And it will double this great school’s laboratory and research capacity.
“That will have an incredible impact on not just the amount of work you can do, but the kind of work you can do and the range of new challenges you can now confront.
“It has an incredible impact on the kind of students this school will train and graduate. And it has an incredible impact on the number of lives and families in Nevada we can help. Because that is what this is all about. Today is not just about a groundbreaking research facility, or an impressive building or its state-of-art equipment.
“What today is about–what the UNR School of Medicine about–lives on a smaller scale. It is about people. It is about families and about quality of life. We are all here because we care about making sure Nevadans can live longer, healthier fuller lives.
“One of those people is a young woman who we’ll hear from in a minute–Andrea Whittemore-Goad. I’ll let her share her story, but I wanted to recognize her and her family. They have contributed so generously and so tirelessly to the future of medicine here in Reno because they have felt so personally how badly we need to move forward.
“As many of you know, for most of her life Andrea has endured a disease many long derided and few took seriously. I learned about chronic fatigue syndrome in 1987, when it was first documented a few miles south of here, in Incline Village.
“I learned how painful it is, how debilitating it can be. It’s distressing and disruptive to the basic desire we all share to live a happy, healthy life.
“So I got to work to advance research in neuro-immune diseases like CFS and help Nevadans like the Whittemores. This facility is the latest and largest step in that effort–and I’m proud one of the many great departments it will house is the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro Immune Disease and all the important research it does.
“You know, we’ve cured polio and mapped the human genome and developed groundbreaking drugs. The future of medicine is going to center on the kind of work that will happen in this center, right here in Reno. It’s going to focus on the research and therapies that will start in this building and soon start to help people live longer lives. So as we inaugurate this building, we inaugurate a new era of medical research and science education.
“I want to thank everyone who has been so dedicated to this project–everyone who believes in innovation that unlocks research, in research that unlocks discovery and in discovery that unlocks good health.
“For the futures of pharmacology, physiology and pathology–of microbiology and cell biology–and of neuro-immune diseases, this facility represents a new home.
“For the futures of every Nevadan who sees in this structure the chance for a better life, it represents the nucleus of new hope.
“You can’t help but be excited about what will happen next.”
