News Advisory: Riffe Bldg. Dedication

                         NEWS ADVISORY:
          RIFFE BUILDING TO BE DEDICATED FRIDAY, DEC. 9

     The Ohio State University will dedicate the Vernal G. Riffe
Jr. Building during a celebration from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, Dec.
9, at the building, located at 496 W. 12th Ave. just east of
Cannon Drive.  The $21 million, 10-story, 128,000-square-foot
building connects the colleges of Biological Sciences and
Pharmacy and is specifically designed to enhance collaborative
research and to meet the laboratory needs of biomedical
researchers well into the future.  The building's flexibility,
safety and cost-effectiveness have already attracted the
attention of researchers and architects around the country.

     It is named in honor of outgoing Speaker of the Ohio House
of Representatives Vern Riffe in recognition of his long support
of the project and the university.  Riffe will be the featured
speaker at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which will also include
comments from Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee; Gary Floyd,
dean of the College of Biological Sciences; and John Cassady,
dean of the College of Pharmacy.  There will be special exhibits
and visuals and tours of the building.  The formal program will
begin at 3 p.m. in the reading area of the second floor of the
library.

     A new Biological Sciences/Pharmacy Library, located on the
first and second floors of the building, opened for use this
autumn.  Construction on the other parts of the building, which
will house faculty and student researchers, is nearly complete
with move-in expected to take place in early 1995.  Special
features include an 8,300-square-foot Biochemical Instrumentation
Center, constructed to accommodate large magnetic instruments
needed to analyze nucleic acids and proteins and other
biomacromolecules.

     The Riffe Building will facilitate basic science research,
which is a springboard for practical advances in medicine,
agriculture and industry.  Examples include studies to: learn
more about how cancer cells are activated; design target-specific
vaccines; stimulate bacteria to make better antibiotics; create
drugs to treat breast cancer; develop simple screening for new
drugs that affect the heart.

     For more information or to arrange for an advance tour or
interviews with the deans or faculty members, contact Sandi
Rutkowski at the College of Biological Sciences, (614) 292-4759.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 02 Dec 1994 10:52:54 -0500 (EST)]
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