Cambridge University to Construct Plant-Growth Study Centre
Construction of a 6 million plant-growing facility allowing scientists to study plants in different environments is under way.
The facility is being built in the grounds of Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
Contractor Willmott Dixon will take around 13 months to complete the building, which will cover an area of 950sq m.
The facility will include 13 rooms and some smaller cabinets. It will be divided into two areas – one for studying plant diseases and the other for studying healthy plants.
Cambridge university professor of botany Roger Leigh said: “The plant growth facility will allow Cambridge botanists to discover more about how plants grow, how they respond to different environments and how plant diseases can spread among them.
“We will be able to grow the plants in a defined environment, controlling the light, humidity, temperature and, in some rooms, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere,”he continued.
“The plant-growth facility wilt help us to identify the functions of genes in plants.”
Centre: will include B rooms and some smaller cabinets
Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Oct 7, 2004