Veterinary and human medicine researchers will soon intensify their investigations of some of the most daunting viral diseases that afflict humans and animals, when the University of California, Davis, establishes a Center for Comparative Medicine facility. Scheduled to break ground in early 1996, the state-of-the-art center is becoming a reality, thanks in part to a $1.6 million grant recently received from the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust. This year, UC Davis is one of six research institutions nationwide to receive a total of $7.6 million for basic medical research from the Markey trust. The grant will support research by UC Davis scientists and postdoctoral fellows, focusing on the prevention and control of major virus-related diseases such as AIDS, herpes virus diseases, measles, and leukemia and other types of cancer. "With both a school of medicine and a school of veterinary medicine, as well as a primate research center, the UC Davis campus is strategically poised for such a research venture in comparative medicine," said Frederick A. Murphy, dean of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. "The 'easy diseases' have already been dealt with. Now by applying the insights of both human and veterinary medicine, as well as the powerful technologies of modern biomedical sciences, researchers associated with the new center will seek simple, practical solutions to what are complex and mysterious diseases." By fall 1997, the center will be housed in a new $15 million building, located next to the existing UC Davis California Regional Primate Research Center. The building will be funded in part through the special Garamendi program of the State of California and in part through federal funds. It will include 16,000 square feet of laboratory and office space, sufficient for 20 to 25 research units. There also will be 8,000 square feet allocated for research animals.