Lab updates provide real world experiences in Jordan Hall

The IU Department of Biology received a technological face-lift during winter break, gaining three state-of-the-art laboratories worth $2 million.

Three weeks into the semester Clay Fuqua, Department of Biology’s associate chairman for facilities and research, said he feels confident that the update to the department’s Jordan Hall facilities was worth it.

“We’re running classes everyday now,” Fuqua said. “Five different courses, each with up to nine sections. This is just the beginning.”

The new laboratories are designed specifically for life sciences, including all aspects of biomedicine, biochemistry and biotechnology, Fuqua said. The labs can accommodate up to 100 students, opposed to only 60 that could work before.

“It’s a considerable net increase in the space and the number of students that can be accommodated simultaneously,” Fuqua said.

Courses being taught in the new spaces include the lab components of Virology, Honors Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Vertebrate and Invertebrate Zoology, Endocrinology, Entomology and Ornithology, according an IU press release.
Fuqua said the update was a long time coming.

“It is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” he said. “These labs hadn’t been updated since the 1950s.”

State-of-the-art technology in the labs includes improved incubation and cell growth facilities, ultralow freezers, water baths and centrifuges, according to the release.
Increases in experiment preparation areas as well as refurbished biosafety cabinets add to the success of the labs, Fuqua said.

“The lab experience at IU will now match much more closely than that of an actual lab that students will see when they graduate,” he said.

The new laboratories are just one part of the larger campus initiative to modernize facilities in support of life sciences, Fuqua said.

Within two years, the biology department will see two additional teaching labs and one new lecture hall. Within four years, there could be as many as eight to nine new or renovated research labs. Fuqua said funding for these projects will come from state stimulus money.

“Revamping life sciences has been a major push from the state legislature and from President McRobbie,” Fuqua said.

Above all, Fuqua said the modernization was designed to help and inspire the students.

“If you’re working in a dank, dusty old lab it doesn’t really excite you as much as a truly modern lab.”