The W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers
University is one of the leading neuroscience education centers in
the world. The laboratory and research center was designed as a
collaborative and barrier-free environment for the study of injured
spinal cord tissue regeneration.
daSILVA worked closely with Dr. Wise Young, a preeminent spinal
injury researcher, to design systems and equipment that suit the
lab’s teaching and working modalities. Because other centers for
neurological research are scattered throughout the world, integrating
high-speed communication into the design was essential. The
neuroscience center is the most advanced computer and internet
facility at Rutgers University; it includes eight stations for real-time
video conferencing and, through a proprietary internet program,
hundreds more may audit conferences and lectures. Specially
designed perimeter downdraft tables were used to exhaust 85
percent of the air. This yielded a fully open space conducive to
collaboration among specialists and patients that are normally segregated.
The lab is used primarily for rat research.