NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Clemson University and the Greenwood Genetics Center plan to expand an existing genetics research center by adding 17,000 square-feet of new lab space in Greenwood, SC, Clemson said today.
The planned Clemson University Center for Human Genetics will house research programs studying and developing new genetic diagnostic tools and epigenetic therapeutics.
Clemson's goal is to create a center that will serve as a core campus for recruiting R&D companies developing diagnostics and other tools aimed at a range of disorders, such as birth defects, autism, cancer, and inflammatory and other diseases.
The new center will be an expansion of the J.C. Self Research Institute at GGC and will be built on land donated by Greenwood County and the Greenwood Commissioners of Public Works. The nearly 15-acre site is adjacent to GGC, located within the Greenwood Research Park, around 60 miles from Clemson. Work on the site is expected to begin in about nine months.
The new center will be open to Clemson researchers, who will work with GGC investigators. In addition, the project will expand Clemson's current human genetics doctoral program.
Clemson said the center also will seek to develop novel diagnostics that can predict the efficacy of therapeutics and early diagnostics for chronic diseases that are prevalent in South Carolina, such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.