The Chronicle of Higher Education's Aisha Labi says plans to build a $1 billion biomedical institute in London are still on despite the severe cuts in public spending. The aim of the interdisciplinary institute, Labi says, is to figure out the underlying causes of some of the world's most "challenging" diseases. Those planning the center — the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, as it's called — also hope it will eventually become a training ground for Britain's scientists. Nobel Prize-winning biologist Sir Paul Nurse will become the center's first chief executive, Labi reports. It's expected to be up and running by 2015.