CDD Fall Symposium To Highlight New Sciences Building Sept. 23

by Judy Long

Baylor University's Center for Drug Discovery (CDD) will hold its Fall Student Research Symposium from 3 until 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, in the Baylor Sciences Building. The university will dedicate the new world-class science research facility on Friday.

Refreshments will be served at 3 p.m. in the third floor clock tower, and posters will be displayed for viewing and judging beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the third floor atrium area.

Dr. Bob Kane, associate professor of chemistry and director of the CDD, said he expects between 25 and 30 posters from students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty. The participants include contributors from computer science, social work and anthropology, chemistry and biochemistry, and psychology and neuroscience at Baylor and the Institute of Immunology in Dallas, who collaborate on CDD biomedical projects.

Founded in 1999, the CDD is an interdisciplinary endeavor of the departments of chemistry and biochemistry, biology, and psychology and neuroscience to facilitate research projects across a spectrum of disciplines. The CDD fosters collaborative interactions among faculty, post-doctoral researchers, students and outside collaborators to support excellence in research and develop compounds that will benefit humankind.

Kane said the new Baylor Sciences Building is a boon to CDD collaboration, and the symposium is a chance to illustrate the value of the building as an interdisciplinary center.

"This is the first opportunity to hold an event with all of us in the same building and demonstrate how the multiple faculties are working together. We've gotten together in the past from different areas on campus, but now that we're in the same building, we're taking advantage of being together. CDD students and faculty have been meeting together every other Thursday, and those meetings have been quite successful," he said.

"We are having more social and scientific interaction, so the symposium is a celebration of our great new facility."

For more information, contact Kane at 710-3311 or Bob_Kane@baylor.edu.