The University of Toledo is conducting an experiment with some of its researchers.

UT is moving professors from their personal lab spaces into newly renovated, large laboratories shared by other researchers in the medical microbiology and immunology department.

The goal is to promote "accidental collaboration," explained Akira Takashima, chairman of the department.

"If you put three professors with overlapping interests together, they will begin to talk," he said. "It's more of an experiment, like a chemical reaction. You never know until you put them together."

The $3 million in renovations was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday at the laboratories on the second floor of the Health Education Building on UT's Health Science Campus.

The renovations were paid for with a grant of more than $1.5 million from the Ohio Department of Development's Third Frontier program that was matched with university funds.

The renovated lab space includes more than 15,000 square feet on the second floor of the Health Education Building and is part of an overall plan to update the medical microbiology and immunology departments.

About half of that area is one very large lab, with other smaller areas for researchers who use bacteria or pathogens that need to be isolated.

Putting researchers together to start talking about what they do can only lead to more research with their colleagues, Mr. Takashima said.

And not just among professors, but graduate and doctoral students who work with them on projects can start to interact more, he said.

Mark Wooten, a professor in the medical microbiology and immunology department, has already begun using the new lab space.

"I like it," Mr. Wooten said. "It's certainly per square foot a better use of space."

And the "what if we did this together" discussions are already beginning with him and a colleague, he said.

Mr. Wooten's research revolves around pathogens and he's working next to Viviana Ferreira, who studies the immune system, in the new lab.

"We're already thinking about collaboration," he said.

The newly renovated lab area used to consist of hallways and small labs and offices.

In addition to helping researchers work together more easily, converting to the larger shared space also will mean less duplication of resources, said Chuck Lehnert, the university's vice president for facilities and construction.

"It allows the investigators to go to that space to use a microscope, for example, and not have each lab with its own," Mr. Lehnert said.

That will help research dollars go further if a professor doesn't need to buy equipment that is already in a shared laboratory space, he said.

"It really does maximize efficiency," Mr. Lehnert said.

Contact Meghan Gilbert-Cunningham

at: mcunningham@theblade.com

or 419-724-6134.

First Published January 7, 2010, 12:58 p.m.