Science Park and Bastrop

Virginia Harris Cockrell Cancer Research Center - Science Park

Situated near Smithville in the midst of Buescher State Park, the Virginia Harris Cockrell Cancer Research Center, Science Park - Research Division, is a unique component of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. A part of the Central Texas community since 1977, the Science Park - Research Division provides an ideal setting for scientific research, education, conferences and workshops. Since its inception, this campus has developed steadily in size and is now recognized as a world leader in research on carcinogenesis (the origins of cancer) and cancer prevention. 

Research programs at the Science Park - Research Division can best be described as interactive in their approach and focused on the elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms operative in carcinogenesis. The quality of the research programs can best be judged by the unusually high level of productivity, the success with which the staff secure grant support and the recognition investigators receive both nationally and internationally.

Currently, there are nearly 300 employees on the Science Park - Research Division campus. The professional research force of 65 includes 26 faculty, 9 junior faculty, 19 postdoctoral fellows, and 11 research investigators and research scientists. All members of the faculty are involved in education programs, which includes training at the postgraduate, graduate and undergraduate levels. For additional details concerning these programs, go to "Educational Programs" on the home page.

The Center for Research on Environmental Disease, based at the Science Park - Research Division and funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, was established to study the mechanisms by which environmental factors cause human disease and to develop methods for the detection, prevention and control of environmentally-related disease. In addition, the center seeks to detect human exposure and monitor disease prevention strategies.

Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research - Bastrop

Located on about 375 acres near Bastrop, the facility houses chimpanzees, rhesus monkeys, sheep, cattle, swine, chickens and rodents, and has an international reputation for innovation in breeding and managing many species vital to biomedical research at MD Anderson and all over the United States. More than 100 people, including veterinarians, animal handlers, research technicians and administrative staff conduct research there in cancer, HIV, hepatitis, obesity and vaccine development. The Bastrop campus has earned an international reputation for laboratory animal science and comparative medicine as well as housing, care and re-socializing of chimpanzees.

The vision of the Keeling Center is to use the center’s unique biomedical research resources to create a center of excellence like no other in the United States. The highly successful programs and expertise with in-life research involving a wide range of animal models create a unique set of research assets to expand and strengthen the center’s research and education mission. This places the Keeling Center in a leadership position in research that requires nonhuman primate models of human diseases, especially cancer and cancer-related diseases. The center’s Good Laboratory Practices program will provide MD Anderson Cancer Center with an essential part of its translational research program. The major activity areas at the Keeling Center:

• Veterinary services supporting MD Anderson Cancer Center faculty research programs
• Federally supported national biomedical research resources of squirrel monkeys, owl monkeys and chimpanzees
• A breeding resource of rhesus monkeys for pharmaceutical research and testing
• Investigator initiated grants and contracts in cancer and cancer related diseases
• GLP testing in support of MD Anderson’s translational research programs
• Post-professional and post-graduate education and training