Rutgers University will receive $50 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a linchpin of federal cash that will be the backbone of funding for research work planned to be undertaken at the HELIX. The HELIX is the five-acre science, tech and “innovation campus” currently being built directly across from the New Brunswick train station. On Monday, Rutgers called the $50 million a “transformative award” that is “directly tied to the HELIX site’s development in New Brunswick.”
There is still no date for when the HELIX will open, but its construction has been strongly pushed by Gov. Phil Murphy: The idea is to have New Jersey’s two largest universities (Rutgers and Princeton), and its two biggest dueling hospital networks (Hackensack Meridian and RWJBarnabas) come together under one roof in the center of the state — and collaborate instead of compete with each other. Gov. Murphy previously said he imagines the HELIX to be a place where a new Facebook is invented, new vaccines are built or a place where cancer cures can be found. To read the full story.