Tufts University acquires a portion of the former Grafton State Hospital in North Grafton, MA for a new veterinary school, the only veterinary school in New England.
1981
Tufts Veterinary School opens its Hospital for Large Animals, later adding the Henry and Lois Foster Hospital for Small Animals and wildlife clinic. Hospital veterinarians not only treat animals but eventually conduct clinical research.
1990
Dr. Saul Tzipori, an internationally esteemed expert in food and waterborne diseases, joins Tufts Veterinary School to create and direct the school's new Division of Infectious Diseases.
1991
Grafton, at a town meeting, unanimously passes an ordinance to adopt NIH guidelines for research involving recombinant DNA, demonstrating understanding and support of the life sciences.
1992
Grafton approves a Campus Development Overlay district covering the Tufts campus, designed to expedite building permitting. Tufts University establishes Tufts Biotechnology Corporation to develop a science park on the veterinary school's campus.
1997
Tufts Biotechnology Transfer Center, an incubator facility, is completed and occupied.
1998
The veterinary school proposes designating 100 acres from its campus to create a commercial science park. The park is intended to accommodate research and development, manufacturing, and other activities conducted by biotechnology, medical, pharmaceutical and other science companies.
1999
Grafton approves the veterinary school's Campus Master Plan, including the science park.
2003
Tufts is selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as one of six institutions to form the Food and Waterborne Diseases Integrated Research Network (FWD-IRN). Within this network, the Division of Infectious Diseases is awarded funding to host the Microbiology and Botulism Research Unit (MBRU).
2004
Tufts announces it will seek NIH funding to build a Regional Biosafety Laboratory.
2005
The NIH selects the Cummings School to build the New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory in the science park. Tufts holds a number of public forums on the NE-RBL to provide information on its role in support of infectious disease research and its importance to the region's scientific community.
A $50 million gift from the Cummings Foundation renames the veterinary school the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. The Gates Foundation awards Tufts researchers at the medical school and the Division of Infectious Diseases funding to develop needle-free vaccines against childhood diseases in third world countries.
2006
Tufts selects NE-RBL architects and engineers Flad and Associates of Madison, Wisconsin and ccrd of partners Galveston, Texas to work with the Cummings School to complete the building plans for the NE-RBL.
2007
Plans submitted to permitting authorities for approval; construction by Gilbane Building Company of Providence, Rhode Island begins in the fall.
2008
Building is weather-tight by April and substantially complete by year-end.
2009
Construction completed and commissioning, certification, and select agent registration process begins. Dedication is March 30, 2009. Scientific research by Tufts Division of Infectious Diseases investigators and collaborators to be underway once all approvals are secured.
