Animal Research

The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology opened its new facility in the Vienna Biocenter in March of 2017. Designed by ATP Architects and Engineers, the highly flexible building will accommodate 200 investigators engaged in biomedical research and development. Founded in 1985, the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology is funded by research grants and the sponsorship of founding company Boehringer Ingelheim, who invested $57 million in the project. The duration of construction was two and a half years.

Adaptimmune opened its new headquarters in the Philadelphia Navy Yard in March of 2017 in Philadelphia. The 47,400-sf project will include an advanced cGMP manufacturing facility to support the development and commercialization of novel engineered immunotherapies for cancer. The facility was designed by DIGSAU and is expected to attain LEED Gold in the Core & Shell rating system. CBRE’s Life Science Advisory and Project Management Group assisted Adaptimmune during the construction phase of the project.

Texas Tech University broke ground on the $77 million Experimental Sciences Building II in February of 2017 in Lubbock, Texas. Designed by TreanorHL to support interdisciplinary research, the collaborative 117,000-gsf facility will provide four general wet labs, three core instrumentation suites, two synthetic labs, a vivarium, a BSL-2 lab, conference rooms, and offices for researchers and principal investigators. The construction manager for the LEED-certified facility, which comprises four stories and a basement, is Project Control.

A new Centralized Research Support Facility (CRSF) at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has created a host of benefits for the university and its Animal Care Program, including almost $13 million in savings to date, with more savings expected when existing space is reassigned. The project could signal a paradigm shift as available research space shrinks, but consolidation/centralization requires significant operational and cultural shifts.

Central Michigan University opened the $95 million Biosciences Building in January of 2017 in Mount Pleasant. Designed by Stantec to promote interaction and collaboration, the four-story, 169,000-sf facility provides teaching labs, research labs, lecture halls, an active learning classroom, an auditorium, and faculty offices. The building also includes a BSL-3 suite, an herbarium, an imaging center, and an aquatic research vivarium. Clark Construction began work on the project in September of 2014.

Zymeworks opened a 10,000-sf biopharmaceutical laboratory in January of 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The facility will provide a centralized location for the company’s discovery research operations, including antibody generation, medicinal chemistry, bioconjugation, and the development of multifunctional proteins. Zymeworks is a producer of therapeutic agents for clinical-stage research on the treatment of cancer.

With many aging animal and biocontainment facilities coming to the end of their useful life, renovations, modernizations, and upgrades are by far the top priorities among facility owners and operators, and greater flexibility and adaptability are the hottest issues in project and program planning. Rodents are still overwhelmingly the primary species in animal research, according to industry leaders, and most containment facilities maintain a combination of containment levels; of facilities housing a single containment level, BSL-2 is by far the most prevalent.

The Jackson Laboratory is building the $21 million Center for Biometric Analysis in Bar Harbor, Maine. Designed by Harriman Associates, the 21,000-sf facility will support the precision analysis of disease markers in research mice through advanced imaging and analytical technologies. PC Construction broke ground on the project in June of 2016 and completion is expected by January of 2018. The construction cost of the facility is $14 million. 

As scientific research increasingly moves toward a greater use of data, so too is the animal cage technology being introduced and developed by major manufacturers. Innovations designed to improve animal life, reduce costs, and enhance research are happening at the cage level, with technology allowing for control of conditions within individual housing units and data collection of cage-level variables.

After a one-year delay, Congress has passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which includes new funding totaling $4.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $500 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to bring novel drug therapies and medical devices to market more quickly, and $1 billion to fight the growing opioid crisis. The NIH funding includes $1.8 billion for Vice President Joseph Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot,” $1.6 billion for President Obama’s BRAIN initiative, and additional money earmarked for precision medicine. The Cures Act funding is separate from, and in addition to, annual NIH budget increases. It comes on the heals of a $2 billion increase in NIH funding last year, the largest increase in a decade. If the trend continues, it could result in a need for additional research infrastructure in the form of renovations and new construction.

• Major Trends in Research Facility Planning and Design
• NIH Receives a $2 Billion Funding Boost
• The Next-Next Generation Workplace
• Intel Designs Next Generation Workplace for Recruitment and Retention
• Transforming Existing Spaces into Active Learning Classrooms  
• Future Proofing Vivarium Space Through Flexible Design
• University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s New Space Allocation System
• “Super Lab” Improves Student Learning, Challenges Faculty Adaptability
• Maker Spaces: The Bridge Between Higher Education and Industry
• UPenn Replaces the HVAC System of a Fully Occupied, Operational Chemistry Facility

GlaxoSmithKline began construction in December of 2016 on a 100,000-sf SMART laboratory and office facility in Upper Providence, Pa. Skanska has been awarded the $45 million contract for demolition and renovation of four floors in an existing structure to implement GSK’s Smart Space concept, which features integrated technological innovations for research and productivity. Completion is expected in October of 2017.

Merck has selected Alexandria Real Estate Equities to develop a biopharmaceutical R&D facility in South San Francisco, Calif. Construction will begin in early 2017 on the nine-story, 294,000-rsf building, the entirety of which will be leased by Merck. Designed by DGA to accommodate up to 300 scientists engaged in collaborative, multidisciplinary research, the facility will provide laboratories, offices, a 300-seat auditorium, a café, and a fitness center.

Pfizer will begin construction in mid-2017 on a $200 million research and development campus in Chesterfield, Mo. Supporting the creation of advanced vaccines, biotherapeutics, and pharmaceuticals, the project could include a 460,000-sf facility standing up to five stories high. The campus will be built by Clayco and its development subsidiary CRG, with Pfizer leasing the structures upon completion. Occupancy is expected in 2020.

Texas A&M University is planning to begin construction in January of 2017 on the $86 million Global Health Research Complex in College Station. The 102,000-sf biocontainment facility will provide advanced laboratories for the study of infectious agents and diseases in plants, animals, and humans. Supporting collaboration within the A&M System, the project will collocate biomedical, veterinary, engineering, and environmental science research in a single complex to create innovative strategies for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.