Behind each tall, black computer rack in the data center at the Advanced Technology Research Facility is something both strangely familiar and oddly out of place: It looks like a radiator. The back door of each cabinet is gridded with the coils of the Liebert cooling system, which circulates chilled water to remove heat generated by the high-speed, high-capacity, fault-tolerant equipment.

The physical proximity of the SAIC-Frederick Intellectual Property (IP) Office to the NCI Technology Transfer Center is one of the many benefits of being at the Advanced Technology Research Facility, according to Courtney Silverthorn, Ph.D. Being in one location “has increased the effectiveness of both informal communication and formal meetings. We have already brainstormed solutions for several issues in the hallway during an informal chat,” said Silverthorn, an SAIC-Frederick IP specialist.

The Biopharmaceutical Development Program (BDP) at the Frederick National Laboratory is, for the first time ever, in a single building at the Advanced Technology Research Facility. At Fort Detrick, BDP operations were spread out in about a dozen buildings, resulting in redundancies in maintaining various utilities (air handlers, clean steam, WFI, etc.) for multiple buildings rather than one.

The Laboratory of Proteomics and Analytical Technologies, Antibody Characterization Laboratory, and Protein Chemistry Laboratory, previously located on different floors or in different buildings, are now together on the first floor of C wing in the ATRF.

John-Paul Denson and Troy Taylor of the Protein Expression Laboratory (PEL) used to pack liters of Escherichia coli lysates on ice, put them in the back of a microvan, and drive across campus to deliver the samples for protein purification. Now that all PEL staff members are working under the same roof at the Advanced Technology Research Facility (ATRF), transferring samples is just a walk down the hall. Staff members were previously spread out in five buildings across the Fort Detrick campus.