Former President George H. W. Bush will speak at today’s dedication of the Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.

His presence will bring a large amount of publicity for the state-of-the-art $40 million facility that represents the University’s growing role in biotechnology.

Built as an open-lab concept, the center is designed to maximize interactions and foster work between researchers from different fields.

“This building is designed to reflect a change that has come over science in the last decade,” said Harry Dailey, director of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute. “It is going from individual scientists working on individual projects to groups of people from interdisciplinary, collaborative work.”

Questions in science have become so big and complex that they can no longer be solved by a single researcher, he said.

The center houses various departments such as the BHSI, the Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and the College of Public Health.

The focus on biomedicine follows a shift in future disease patterns from chronic to delayed degenerative diseases, which result from the body’s natural aging process, said Leigh Willis, professor of medical sociology.

Degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and arthritis are much more complex and cannot be cured with prescriptions.

Rather, application of new technology and understanding of human physiology are necessary for treatment, he said.

The University is part of a trend among American universities and foreign countries that are funneling money into research and development in the biosciences.

Georgia Tech, known as an engineering school, has invested in developing the biological sciences over the years. It now has a bioengineering and bioscience institute and joint biomedical operations with Emory University.

“There are so many different areas that it becomes friendly competition but also collaborative possibilities,” Dailey said. “International competition is a healthy thing, and it’s what really drives science.”

In 2004, the U.S. biotech industry spent $19.8 billion on research and development, according to the Biotechnology Industry Organization. In the same year, revenues from biotechnology reached $46 billion.

“Biotechnology permeates every aspect of everything we do. It’s a very interdisciplinary type of field because it is so pervasive in society,” said Dale Threadgill, director of the engineering faculty.

Threadgill sees nanobio, a blend of nanotechnology and biotechnology, as the area with the biggest potential in the future.

Nanotechnology involves engineering with atoms and molecules.

“It takes us to such a small scale that it enables us to do things we’ve never dreamed about,” he said.

Biotechnology has vast potential for its impact on human welfare, the quality of life and economic development, Threadgill said.

In the meantime, the Coverdell Center is hoped to provide the visibility needed to attract funding and high-quality faculty and students.

“We have a lot of good scientists on this campus,” said Dailey. “The future is bright.”