With its wood-paneled hallways and pristine lab counters, the new molecular biology wing of the Monell Chemical Senses Center is just itching for its first experiment.
The wing is the latest addition to the University City research center, which employs scientists from many disciplines to study the senses. Their research includes such projects as the development of an electronic nose that could eventually be used to diagnose some forms of cancer without invasive techniques.
The center -- part of Penn until becoming an independent nonprofit organization in the late 1970s -- focuses on understanding the interaction between taste and smell at the genetic level.
In May the center opened its doors for a walk-through of the newly completed 10,000-square-foot, $10.8-million wing, located next to the main facility at 35th and Market streets.
The Monell Center is relatively unknown to Penn students -- except for the nine-foot nose that adorns its entrance. However, the facility is the biggest of its kind in the country, and it provides research to such well-known companies as Kraft, Campbell's and PepsiCo.
Nicole Miller, who graduated from Penn in 1998, began work at the Monell Center as a University City high school student and continued work there throughout her time at Penn.
She said that her experience there was valuable and formative.
"High-school science is basically canned experiments," Miller said. "Here it is the real thing."
Miller also praised the center for its dedication to the city and to diversity -- Monell boasts a strong Philadelphia contingent among those it employs as well as staff members from 15 countries.
The center accepts 40 high-school and undergraduate students as interns each year. Most are from the area or members of underrepresented minority groups.
Located in University City's newly established Keystone Innovation Zone -- a 194-acre region established to promote technology and keep new graduates and budding entrepreneurs in the area -- the center is a little-known cog in the University City technological wheel.
Jim Wellen, the project campaign director, said that "the center itself is part of the critical mass of intellectual firepower in the area."
The center employs over 50 research scientists, some of whom also have appointments in various schools at Penn.
Gary Beauchamp, director of the center, believes that the new wing is just one step in Monell's development.
He said that the new wing would allow researchers to study new and exciting projects in greater depth, adding that in the future it might be possible to swab subjects' taste buds and instantly analyze their taste preferences.
The molecular biology wing is the first part of a two-phase expansion of the center. Within a year and a half, Monell plans to open a sensory testing facility.
