The University of Georgia is continuing its move into the human health arena—initiated by the opening of its Health Sciences Campus in Athens—through a new building that will soon house the Center for Molecular Medicine.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the center will be held Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 2 p.m. at its future site on Riverbend Road, adjacent to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center. The public is invited to attend.

The ceremony will include remarks from University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby, UGA President Jere W. Morehead, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Director Alan Darvill, Center for Molecular Medicine Director Stephen Dalton and student Miranda Hayworth.

“The Center for Molecular Medicine’s mission will be to better understand the molecular and cellular basis of human disease so that new therapies and diagnostics can be developed,” said Dalton, who is also a GRA Eminent Scholar of Molecular Cell Biology and professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

The Center for Molecular Medicine, or CMM, was founded in 2012 at UGA. Every research program within the center’s new building will have a clear link to human disease, with an emphasis on translational research that positively impacts human health. The facility will house up to 10 research groups with interests in stem cells and regenerative medicine, vaccine development and therapeutics, and human disease models such as diabetes and other metabolic diseases, neurological and cardiovascular disorders, and obesity and biomedical glycobiology.

As part of its mission, the center also will train undergraduate and graduate students for careers in the biomedical sciences.

“The new Center for Molecular Medicine building will allow the interaction between CMM and Complex Carbohydrate Research Center researchers to become truly synergistic and will lead to many new advances in our translational studies of human health,” said Darvill, who is also a Regents Professor in the Franklin College.