RENO (AP) - Officials say the opening of a new medical research center at the University of Nevada, Reno, could boost research about diseases that cripple and kill millions of people.
UNR School of Medicine pathology department chairman Dr. Sanford Barsky says the $77 million Center for Molecular Medicine will benefit the university, the state and other academic institutions because discoveries benefit everyone.
Barsky says medicine only has effective treatments for about 600 of some 25,000 different diseases that affect humankind.
The center hosted a grand opening Monday. It houses part of the medical school, UNR's Center for Healthy Aging, and the headquarters and research clinic of the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.
Institute founder Annette Whittemore says the facility will help tackle neuro-immune diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome.