The world's only lab dedicated entirely to finding an AIDS vaccine opens today in Brooklyn.

The AIDS Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory in Sunset Park is expected to be a global nerve center for researchers searching for a vaccine.

The $17 million laboratory is the first occupant in a nearly 500,000-square-feet biotechnology facility being built at the old Brooklyn Army Terminal.

"Essentially this will be a hub. We actually have this as a part of a network that includes Oxford, that includes the Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, that includes a laboratory that we are expanding in India. So all of this is almost like taking a global pandemic and solving it scientifically, globally," said Michael Goldrich of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

The city has reserved the terminal space for bioscience companies and organizations, hoping to become one of the top biotech centers in the world.

That plan includes development of the East River Science Park, scheduled to open in 2010.