Argonne, Ill. (Aug. 29, 2011)—Officials from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago broke ground today (Tuesday, Aug. 30), on a new $34.5 million Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility (APCF) at Argonne. The groundbreaking ceremony began at 10:30 a.m.

The APCF is slated to open in 2014 and will host visiting researchers from around the region and world. The APCF will enhance biotechnology capabilities in the discovery and design of new drugs, vaccines and therapeutics. Increased knowledge of proteins found in natural environments is expected to lead to new strategies for environmental management, which would benefit a variety of fields including energy productions, agriculture and remediation.

The State of Illinois will provide $34.5 million for the design and construction of the facility. The project will generate 825 construction jobs, contributing $25 million in new personal income for Illinois residents. Illinois' investment in APCF is expected to leverage an additional $110 million in federal research funds over five years and create 550 new scientific, high-tech and administrative positions, for an annual total of $20 million in new personal income.

The facility will also expand the research opportunities of the Midwest Center for Structural Genomics and other research efforts in the region, which would result in an expected $400 million to $600 million in federal funding for research over 10 years for Argonne and other regional research organizations.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.