The regents of the University of California have approved the funding plan for the $95 million Genome and Biomedical Sciences Building, a facility that will help make UC Davis an international leader in studies of genes that influence human health and development. The six-story building will have 200,000 gross square feet. It will be located near the Health Sciences Complex and is expected to be completed in 2004. It will house the new UC Davis Genome Center, which will include dozens of faculty members studying the action of genes in growth, health, disease and behavior, and a revitalized pharmacology and toxicology department in the School of Medicine. It will also house a number of other research and administrative units of the School of Medicine and the campus's growing Division of Biomedical Engineering. Most of the new building's cost will be funded using the so-called Garamendi mechanism, which was created by legislation written in 1990 by then-state Sen. John Garamendi. The law allows the university to pay off a construction loan with overhead payments in federal research funds that would otherwise be funneled to the state. Garamendi-style funding will cover $62.7 million of the construction costs. Of the remainder, $16 million will come from the School of Medicine Compensation Plan, $14.2 million from gifts and $2.2 million from campus funds.