Although construction for the Albert Eye Research Institute - the new Trustee-approved addition to the Duke Eye Center - is to begin July 1, the center is still about $10 million short of securing the requisite funds to complete the new building.
The institute, approved unanimously by the Durham City Council last week and set to go up on Erwin Road, stands to cost $24.5 million.
Dr. David Epstein, director of the Duke Eye Center and chair of ophthalmology, is optimistic about completing the fundraising campaign by December 2004, when the building is projected to be completed.
The 72,000 square feet the new institute would provide are critical to the mission of the Eye Center - where the research laboratories are currently full and faculty is "landlocked," Epstein said.
Expansion of pediatric services is much needed to increase the treatment options for the 12,000 children the Center sees on a yearly basis. Epstein said it is imperative to complete the AERI's pediatric floor, the only clinical floor in the research-oriented building. This move will facilitate a transition from the current location of pediatric services, which now sits in the basement of the Eye Center.
Currently, the plan is to let the pediatric floor remain a shell until more funds are procured.
"We need at least another $1.5 to 2 million before we can complete the children's floor," Epstein said.
The gift of $8 million by Ruth and Hyman Albert in March 2002 set off the fundraising campaign for the new institute. Renee Wallace, stewardship officer at the Eye Center, is coordinating the fundraising effort, which is now diversifying its solicitation effort.
"We are now enlisting foundations [to donate money], and we have charged the Eye Center [Advisory] Board [to help raise money]," Wallace said.
The completion of the AERI promises that Duke will become one of the nation's top eye institutes, Epstein said.
"We really want to be and have potential to be number one," he added.
Dr. Sandy Williams, dean of the School of Medicine, agreed that being on par with other leading programs in the nation is a "realistic aspiration."
"All of the elements that predict success are present [at the Eye Center]: outstanding leadership, a remarkably able faculty and a large and growing clinical service program," Williams wrote in an e-mail."Scientific opportunities abound; for example, to identify the genetic factors that predispose individuals to common causes of blindness like glaucoma and macular degeneration, and to pioneer new therapeutic measures."
The Eye Center's genetic thrust will be accompanied by efforts at the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Epstein said.
Jeffery Vance, co-director of the IGSP's Center for Human Genetics, said the interaction between his center and the Eye Center is fairly unique. Many disorders that affect the eye have a strong genetic basis, he said, and the field of ophthalmology will benefit from the interaction.
"Because we have two such strong components [in the Eye Center and the CHG], I expect the collaboration to increase," Vance said.
The rosy outlook of the AERI is, by all accounts, blemished only by its fundraising woes. With a year and a half to go in campaigning, Epstein is counting on philanthropists, grateful patients and alumni to donate additional funds.
Fundraising for the AERI is part of a greater $40 million campaign for the Eye Center, which includes the creation of endowments to fund ongoing research.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.