NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Drug maker Pfizer Inc. and Yale University said Tuesday they will collaborate on a new clinical research center to study drugs for neurological disorders and other diseases.

Pfizer will spend about $35 million to build the center where its scientists will work with Yale School of Medicine researchers to study high-tech scanning technologies that are used to track the effects of new drugs in the body.

Pfizer has similar research centers in Michigan, Belgium and Britain. Its world headquarters for research and development in New London, Conn.

The idea for a collaboration grew out of a discussion by some Pfizer scientists who had worked at Yale.

The state gave the land, 2.5 acres near Yale-New Haven Hospital, to Pfizer for $1. It is a contaminated brownfield and Pfizer will pay to clean it.

A slum on the land was cleared about 30 years ago to make way for a highway project that was never built. Some of the land had been vacant since, while some parcels have been turned into parking lots.

Construction on the 60,000-square-foot building is scheduled to begin in the fall and will take about two years to complete.

Pfizer researchers plan to use the center to test new drugs on healthy, human subjects as part of a federally monitored testing system.

The patients will stay at the center for many hours or overnight so researchers can monitor the test drugs' effects.

The test drugs are bring developed to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer and infectious diseases.