Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - WVSOM is requesting $6,000,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending towards construction, alteration and renovation of its current biomedical research facility, the Fredric W. Smith Science Building. The Science Building houses the modern gross anatomy lab along with a variety of laboratories where basic science and clinical faculty carry out research projects with medical students. It was originally completed in 1991, with a major addition built in 2007. WVSOM has outgrown the facility due to its expansion of research and planned program growth. The project will include renovations to the existing space and the construction of an addition that will expand the space from 21,254 s.f. to 51,803 s.f. This project has the support of state and received $29 million in state funding. It is important for the healthcare of West Virginians and residents of the United States that WVSOM maintain and expand its state-of-the art facilities to continue to train and graduate physicians who practice in the rural areas of the state, the Appalachian region, and across the U.S. Of West Virginia’s three medical schools, WVSOM is uniquely positioned to graduate physicians who will stay in the state to practice in their communities. WVSOM is West Virginia’s only stand-alone medical school, the only osteopathic school, and the only one created specifically to train physicians to serve West Virginia’s poor, rural, and underserved communities.