Cost: $4.55 million

Size: 13,000 sf

Project team: Emily Rabinsky, professor of biology, biotechnology program coordinator; James Knapp, professor of biology; Dan Campbell, HCC director of Facilities & Engineering; Lia Sin Hew, associate, Dimella Shaffer (architect)

Description: The Center for Life Sciences features a suite of new biotechnology classrooms and labs and what is believed to be the only ISO certified cleanroom at any Massachusetts community college; it is certainly one of very few at any college or university in western Massachusetts.

The cost of the project, including new equipment, was covered by a $3.8 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, supplemented by $750,000 from the HCC Foundation’s Building Healthy Communities Capitol Campaign.

The first-floor renovation involved the construction of new labs primarily for biotechnology, genetics and microbiology classes. Once it is fully equipped and operational, the CLS cleanroom will have a certification rating of ISO 8 (air quality of no more than 100,000 particles per cubic foot). Inside the cleanroom there will be a hooded biosafety cabinet where the sterility will increase to ISO 7, or no more than 10,000 particles per cubic foot.

Cleanroom operations are expected to be incorporated into HCC’s credit-bearing biotechnology classes. Later this fall, HCC will also begin offering a new non-credit, professional development course called “Introduction to Cleanroom Technology.”

Grant funds and donations paid for new equipment including a high-end, research grade fluorescent microscope, like those used in the pharmaceutical industry; a micro volume spectrophotometer (used to measure small amounts of genetic material); and an electroporator (for genetic engineering).

Completion date: Aug. 31, 2018

Contact: Bill Fogarty, Vice President, HCC Administration & Finance, 413-552-2220, bfogarty@hcc.edu