The East Baltimore medical campus rang in the new year with its own "ball" drop. At 3 p.m. on Jan. 21, completion of the $4.5 million Gamma Knife Center at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center was marked with the lowering of the spherical helmet device--the key component of brain therapy combining surgery and radiation--into the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building.

Once loaded with cobalt, the "ball" will be the centerpiece for gamma knife surgery, a highly sophisticated, noninvasive technique for treating brain tumors and other neurological conditions by precisely targeting radiation beams to converge on a single point within the brain.

The Gamma Knife Center is expected to be fully operational by mid-March.