U-M Kellogg Eye Center to be largest in Midwest

The University of Michigan Board of Regents approved a $121-million expansion of the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. The plans include a 222,000-square-foot building that will nearly double the university's current space for eye care, education, and research. This building would be the largest and most comprehensive eye center in the Midwest, according to a University of Michigan release. Completion is scheduled for 2010.

The new eye center will serve patients with state-of-the-art clinics, educational facilities, and laboratories where scientists will have the resources to accelerate research on eye disease and treatments. Two upper floors of the new eight-floor building will house advanced laboratories for Type 1 diabetes research, and cutting-edge facilities for communications and data sharing among diabetes researchers. The floors will house the offices of the Brehm Center for Type 1 diabetes research and analysis, to honor Delores and William Brehm, who donated $44 million.

New vision research space will also foster programs that can have a direct impact on patient care, including opportunities to collaborate with Brehm researchers on eye-related complications of diabetes. Paul R. Lichter, MD, director of the Kellogg Eye Center, anticipates recruiting new senior scientists to focus on genetic research and other approaches that will lead to rapid development of treatments for age-related macular degeneration and other degenerative eye diseases.

The Kellogg Eye Center has experienced 11% growth in patient visits in each of the past 7 years and expects even faster growth as the aging Baby-Boomer population peaks in the next 10 to 15 years.