Cancer center needs $2 million to open labs

SPRINGFIELD -- The director of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine's Simmons Cooper Cancer Institute says there's not enough money available to open research laboratories in the building.

The center in Springfield is set to open in July. But center director Doctor K. Thomas Robbins says the institution needs $2 million in grants and donations to open the research labs by the time of the July 10 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

So far officials have $400,00 of the needed $2 million. The labs would be used by researchers to find better cancer treatments.

Construction on the $21.5 million center started in 2005.