Researchers at Kansas University’s Lawrence campus won’t have to wait for completion of a new biosciences research building at KU Medical Center to reap the benefits of a $120 million bond package approved by the Legislature this spring.

They’ve already begun ordering $5 million in equipment for their labs.

Included in the bond package for the center, slated for completion by 2006, is $5 million for equipment that will make an impact on KU’s Lawrence campus.

Jim Roberts, associate vice provost for research, said KU officials had ordered the first piece of equipment using the money.

The list of equipment includes a $2.5 million spectrometer to measure the properties of proteins, $500,000 for an X-ray instrument for looking at proteins and $1.5 million for other instruments. It also includes $500,000 for creating a space for the spectrometer.

All the equipment will help KU’s research on proteomics, the study of proteins and their relationship to disease.

The equipment could be in place within a year, Roberts said.

“We’d like to identify a place where we could have these instruments co-located,” he said. “There’s value in having researchers using the same instruments collaborating with one another and talking with one another.”