Photo: Paul Smaglik

Research equipment spills into the hallway of NIH's Clinical Research Center (Building 10). While an addition to that building is scheduled for completion in 2002, some NIH campus scientists wonder whether construction alone can contain the burgeoning intramural research program.

Freezers, centrifuges, and tanks crowd the corridors of the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Research Center (Building 10). In one of that building's shared lab rooms, benches line one wall and computer workstations line another, with only a narrow strip of empty floor separating them. "Space is a problem here in Building 10," notes Susan Dorman, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) clinical postdoc. "There's no question that space on campus is very, very tight," agrees Harry L. Malech, an NIAID lab leader. Outside the clinical research center--the campus' largest building--construction projects are in various stages. One project will add 250 beds...