Newsletter, March 2010, Issue 103

Australia’s most imposing medical science precinct will be created in Hobart when the $90 million second stage of the Menzies Research Institute is completed in December 2012. The futuristic Medical Science 1 building (MS1), which accommodates 92 staff, 365 students and 40 PhD candidates from the Health Science Faculty of the University of Tasmania, as well as 374 staff and students from Menzies will be officially opened in April after a five-year gestation.

Medical Science 2 (MS2) will be built by joint-venture contractors Fairbrother and John Holland on a site adjacent to MS1, which is on the corner of Liverpool and Campbell streets. Lyons Architects will work to ensure architectural and design continuity across the two projects. Historic Advocate House will be incorporated into the development. Both building designs incorporate a raft of environmentally friendly construction and operational features. The two stages will be integrated into a world-class medical science precinct adjoining the Royal Hobart Hospital.

The Director of the Menzies Research Institute, Professor Simon Foote said benefits the completed project would bring to Tasmania could not be overstated. “The new building project will provide for the continuing growth and expansion of Menzies as we head towards a new era in health and medical research,” he said. “MS2 will assist in accommodating the 374 staff and research students we currently have and provide space for us to reach our desired size of 500 people.”

“The new development will attract further high-quality professionals to Tasmania, enable us to expand our research by covering more disease areas, increase our collaborative links throughout Australia and internationally, and provide more opportunities for employment and professional development for researchers and medical professionals,” Professor Foote said.

The Federal Government has committed $44.7 million towards MS2, with further financial support from UTAS, the Tasmanian Government and the US-based Atlantic Philanthropies, which also supported the $58 million MS1. MS2 will house the clinical research facilities of both the Royal Hobart Hospital and Menzies.

MS1’s striking building façade incorporates coloured pre-cast concrete panels, cast-in steel window frames and custom-made double-glazed window units. Staff and students from five different Hobart locations began moving into the five-storey building in December 2009.

Meanwhile, the institute held a symposium in December 2009 to celebrate its 21 years of medical research. Researchers and guests were told that health professionals still did not have all the basic information needed to help prevent cardiovascular disease. Guest speaker and Co-Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney, Professor Stephen Leeder, said essential research on which preventive measures could be based still had not been carried out. “Basic preventive measures need to be stripped right back and include talking to the town planners, the agricultural people, food suppliers and big industry and developing research that would enable us to be very much clearer than we are at the moment about what we should actually do to better prevent these conditions,” he said. “We simply do not know as much as we need to know about the effective prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.”

Key initiatives included ensuring cities were better planned to encourage exercise and healthy living, promoting healthy food options and involving employers in preventive health programs.

Professor Leeder said it cost governments almost $6 billion a year to treat conditions such as cardiovascular disease, but not enough research funding was being made available to tackle the causes.

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