Pennington Biomedical Research Center
| Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) | |
|---|---|
| About the Center | |
| Established | 1981 |
| Executive Director | William T. Cefalu, M.D. |
| Faculty | Approximately 80 |
| Postdoc. Fellows | Approximately 25 |
| Staff | Over 500 |
| Operating Budget | $59 million (FY 2012-2013) |
| Campus | 222-acre (0.90 km2) |
| Address | 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808 |
| Country | USA |
| Website | www.pbrc.edu |
| Affiliations | |
| Research Funding | |
| National Institutes of Health | |
| U.S. Department of Defense | |
| U.S. Department of Agriculture | |
| State of Louisiana | |
| Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation | |
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The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a campus of the Louisiana State University System and conducts clinical, basic, and population science research. According to its website, its mission is to discover the triggers of chronic diseases through innovative research that improves human health across the lifespan. It is the largest academically based nutrition research center in the world, with the greatest number of obesity researchers on faculty. The Center’s over 500 employees occupy several buildings on the 222-acre (0.90 km2) campus. The center was designed by the Baton Rouge architect John Desmond.
In 1980, Baton Rouge oilman and philanthropist C. B. "Doc" Pennington and his wife, Irene, provided $125 million to fund construction of the nutritional research center. With a U.S. Department of Defense contract and funding from the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority, Governor Buddy Roemer proclaimed the official opening of the Center in 1988. Dr George A. Bray, a renowned obesity researcher, was recruited to be the first executive director of the center and under his leadership the center reached its present status in the scientific world.
Today, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center houses almost 600 employees, 14 research laboratories, 17 core service laboratories, an inpatient and outpatient clinic, two metabolic chambers, a research kitchen, an administrative area, more than $20 million in technologically advanced equipment, and a team of over 80 scientists and physicians with specialties such as molecular biology, genomics and proteomics, neuroanatomy, exercise physiology, biochemistry, psychology, endocrinology, biostatistics and electrophysiology.
One of the former employees was the late state legislator Leonard J. Chabert from Terrebonne Parish, the namesake of the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma.
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