In the Life Sciences, multidisciplinary learning is front and center. Although many universities have sited their medical schools far from the main campus, Life Sciences and the School of Medicine at UCLA are close neighbors. This proximity has led not only to joint taching and research projects but also to a pioneering partnership between the School of Medicine and the College. New construction to support this partnership will bring natural collaboration among complementary biomedical disciplines even closer.

UCLA is now building a research complex in two interconnected buildings. This one hundred million dollar project will house three units in the School of Medicine (the Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Biological Chemistry and Orthopaedic Surgery) and two in Life Sciences (the Departments of Microbiology and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology). Medicine and Life Sciences faculty will work side by side in dedicated, jointly held space built to speed the translation of discovery into practice and the transmission of knowledge to students.

Expected growth for the Life Sciences in the new century will intensify the Division's longstanding need for classroom and lecture space. Already in Winter Quarter of 2000, ten of twelve Life Sciences lecture courses far exceeded capacity (225 seats) of the Division's only lecture hall. All ten classes shifted to rooms built to serve the Arts, Education and Humanities. A new Life Sciences Teaching and Conference Center, located close to related research activities, will feature a larger auditorium (375 seats) and breakout rooms to accomodate both instructional and conference needs.

The study of living organisms - from tiny molecules to huge ecosystems - is the focus of the Division of Life Sciences. A third of the College's students work with Life Sciences faculty to examine and unravel the complex mysteries of life.

New connections - and new space needs that come with them - are growing from the Life Sciences to other fields in Engineering, Humanities, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. Not only biotechnology and bioengineering but also cognitive science, biological psychology, environmental science and nanotechnology are creating new opportunities and setting new challenges for the Division. With private funding to support new partnerships in new space, the Life Sciences will meet the challenge.

ð  You won't find the word "proteomics" in any existing textbook. Look for it a year or two from now. Like the genome, the repository of an organisms's genetic information, the proteome is the repository of its protein information. The name "proteomics" has only recently been coined, and UCLA is defining it. That's how quickly the Life Sciences are evolving.

ð  In new Life Sciences laboratories, faculty researchers will work at the limits of science and medicine. Two college scientists who are gaining worldwide acclaim are Karen Lyons, for her investigations into the regulation of bone growth; and Steve Jacobsen, for his studies of control of gene expression in arabidopsis, a model plant.