<p>Wherever the California-based Burnham Institute plans to build its new site, the University of Florida is sure to follow.</p>
<p>The Burnham Center for Medical Research, a nonprofit biotechnology firm, is expected to announce today whether it will set up an East Coast branch in Orlando or Port St. Lucie. Either way, UF will build a facility alongside the institute, ensuring a collaborative relationship in the study of cancer, aging and genetics, UF President Bernie Machen confirmed Tuesday.</p>
<p>Officials from both cities, which have been in heated competition to land Burnham, have agreed to provide UF with adjacent land to build a facility alongside Burnham, Machen said. UF will then pay for the construction costs of what Machen envisions as a 50,000-square-foot building.</p>
<p>Getting land in close proximity to the Burnham site was essential for the level of collaboration that UF and Burnham intend, Machen said.</p>
<p>"The important part is that we're next to them," he said. "We're not across town."</p>
<p>UF could begin planning its facility immediately, Machen said, and then push for legislative dollars to fund it.</p>
<p>The state will give Burnham $155.3 million to set up a 175,000-square-foot facility in Florida, and both potential sites are expected to at least match that amount in order to hook the institute. Over the next seven to 10 years, Burnham plans to hire as many as 300 people.</p>
<p>Researchers at Burnham study cell behavior, which has potential applications in the study of infectious diseases, aging and cancer. UF, which boasts a $250 million annual budget for biological science research, already conducts research into many of the areas that are of interest to the institute.</p>
<p>Throughout the lobbying war between Orlando and Port St. Lucie, Machen remained quiet - at least publicly. In interviews, Machen has said that UF didn't have a dog in the fight, and that either location would suit the university. Even so, Machen said he was courted by officials from both cities, who leaned on him to promote their locations in hopes that UF would use its leverage to win Burnham's favor.</p>
<p>The substance of today's announcement about Burnham's plans has been shrouded in secrecy. Machen, who said he could not reveal the site when asked Tuesday, will attend a news conference in Tallahassee today before he and other officials are swooped off by plane to the undisclosed location of Burnham's new Florida branch.</p>
<p>Winn Phillips, UF's vice president of research, said the university will offer its facilities to the institute while Burnham's fledgling Florida enterprise takes shape. In time, Burnham researchers will be paid on joint-faculty appointments at UF, and existing UF faculty will collaborate with Burnham as well, Phillips said.</p>
<p>"It's sort of a one-way street for the first couple of years," he said. "We are largely supporting them."</p>
<p>Eventually, however, Burnham stands to help boost UF's research reputation, drawing more dollars from agencies interested in funding the institute's projects, Phillips said.</p>
<p>The university has just come off a banner year of its own in the research arena, receiving a record $518.8 million in research funding in 2006. The partnership with Burnham, along with collaboration with the Jupiter-based Scripps Institute, can only help those research dollars to grow, Phillips said.</p>
<p>"We are poised right now to seize the new biological revolution," Phillips said. ". . . I think the sky's the limit now. It's a whole new era for UF and the state of Florida."</p>