Statement about The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center Affiliation with The Rockefeller University

Statement about The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center Affiliation with
The Rockefeller University, May 15, 1996
The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center for the City of New York, the largest private
HIV/ AIDS research facility in the world, and The Rockefeller University have undertaken
negotiations to formalize an affiliation between the two institutions, pending a vote of approval
by the university's board of trustees at a meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 13, 1996.
The board of directors of the Diamond Center voted on Monday, April 15,1996, to
dissolve its association with the New York University School of Medicine (NYU). The Aaron
Diamond Foundation provided $11 million in 1989 to establish the Diamond Center as an
independent nonprofit research corporation. New York University, the New York City
Department of Health and the Public Health Research Institute collaborated with The Aaron
Diamond Foundation in the creation of the Diamond Center, which opened in 1991. David D.
Ho, M.D., has been the scientific director and chief executive officer of the Diamond Center
since its inception.
More than 50 scientists at the Diamond Center study HIV, the retrovirus that causes
AIDS. Research focuses on understanding how HIV is transmitted, how it causes disease and
how it may be countered by drugs and vaccines. The Diamond Center has an annual research
budget of $6.4 million.
According to the Diamond Center board of directors, NYU was unable to accommodate
the Diamond Center's clinical studies in HIV-infected patients. Since early 1995, scientists from
the Diamond Center have conducted inpatient and outpatient studies of HIV/AIDS at the
Rockefeller University Hospital, a 30-bed facility devoted solely to clinical research.
"We think an affiliation with The Rockefeller University, which is highly regarded for its
long tradition of basic research, will encourage a rich cross-fertilization of ideas and fruitful
collaborations between our staff members that may yield a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS
and improve therapies for patients infected with the virus," says Ho. "We will develop a
synergy with The Rockefeller University's AIDS researchers."
If the Diamond Center affiliates with Rockefeller, the university will provide both
administrative space at its campus for some of the Diamond Center's faculty and staff members
and infrastructure support of investigations conducted at the Rockefeller University Hospital.
However, the Diamond Center's laboratories will not relocate.
Diamond Center scientists will continue to occupy a 20,000 square-foot floor of the New
York City Bureau of Laboratories building. With the support of the Aaron Diamond
Foundation, the Diamond Center renovated the space and built state-of-the-art laboratories,
including a 5,000 square-foot Biosafety Level-3 facility.
Currently, the Diamond Center, with $10 million from the Aaron Diamond Foundation,
is renovating an additional 20,000 square feet on an adjacent floor of the building to expand
laboratory and administrative capabilities. The project, designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent Inc.,
of Atlanta, will be completed in the fall of 1996.
In addition to the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Diamond Center has received
funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Cancer
Institute (two parts of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health) and from the
Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
END OF STATEMENT

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