Genomics

Novartis is partnering with the University of Pennsylvania to create the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics. Located on the Penn Medicine Campus in Philadelphia, the 30,000-sf facility will accommodate research on personalized cellular cancer therapies using chimeric antigen receptor technology (CAR). Supported by $20 million in funding from Novartis, the project will be built on top of the Jordan Medical Education Center and South Pavilion Extension, which is currently under construction. Completion is expected in 2016.

The J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla is home to 125 researchers and staff dedicated to genomic research involving infectious disease, microbial and environmental genomics, plant genomics, and synthetic biology and bioengineering. It is located on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), to take advantage of collaboration opportunities with scientists from UCSD, Scripps, and others.

High-performance core facilities, spurred by proliferating cross-disciplinary investigations and technological advances, can benefit from the long-standing focus on flexibility that has generated so many design efficiencies in the traditional research lab, says Randy Kray, senior vice president and science and technology director of programming and planning at HOK.

The 21-story Hospital for Sick Children's (SickKids) Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning is believed to be the largest health center in the world devoted to children's health research. It houses more than 2,000 scientists and staff, with room for 260 PIs—previously scattered in six different locations—conducting state-of-the-art genomics, cancer, stem cell, brain behavior, and organ research.

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine completed a three-phase construction project that for the first time consolidates its entire marine research operation into one facility, replacing a collection of buildings, some of which had neither heat nor air conditioning. The new Ocean Science and Education Campus, on 54 acres where the Damariscotta River empties into the Gulf of Maine, includes a shore facility for research vessels.

The Regenerative Medicine Research Building, funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, integrates and expands the Buck Institute’s stem-cell research program to achieve increased breadth and depth of expertise in the application of stem-cell biology and technology, including how the regeneration of human cells and tissues can be used to treat life-threatening diseases of older age, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, stroke, and diabetes.

The University of California, San Diego dedicated the $113 million Health Sciences Biomedical Research Facility in March of 2014 in La Jolla, Calif. Designed by ZGF Architects, the 196,000-sf building provides wet bench laboratories, open lab space, lab support, offices, conference rooms, and an interaction atrium. A basement level accommodates core labs and mechanical systems.

Hamad Medical Corporation opened the Interim Translational Research Institute (iTRI) in March of 2014 in Doha, Qatar. Located in Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City, the facility will support advanced biomedical research in genomics, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory medicine, and neurosciences. The iTRI includes wet laboratories, a clinical studies unit, a conference center, and core labs for sample analysis and other services.

The 183,500-sf Jackson Laboratory (JAX) for Genomic Medicine aims to advance genomic research not only by way of its location—on the campus of a university health center near major research institutions, hospitals, and urban research corridors—but also by utilizing an interior design that comingles the computational and wet lab aspects of research and encourages collaboration. The ultimate goal is to enable quicker development of disease-fighting therapies targeted at individual patients. 

The J. Craig Venter Institute completed construction in February of 2014 on its new $35 million genomic research facility in La Jolla, Calif. Designed by ZGF Architects to accommodate 125 scientists and staff, the 45,000-sf building includes a single-story, 12,605-sf lab wing and a three-story, 28,600-sf office wing.

The Energy Production Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, brings together the traditional disciplines of civil, environmental, computer, and electrical engineering in a collaborative, innovative research and teaching community. Activities are focused on the development of energy and power production, from microchip fabrication and development of new structural materials to solar and wind power.

The Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto is the largest high-rise pediatric health research facility in Canada, challenging designers to create a collaborative research environment in a 21-story tower. Completed in September 2013, the $400 million CDN ($376 million USD) research tower brings together in one central location about 240 principal investigators and 2,000 trainees and staff, formerly spread out in six Toronto locations.

The University of South Florida broke ground on the $50 million USF Health Heart Institute in Tampa in December of 2013. The five-story, 100,000-sf facility will feature four core laboratories for basic and applied research, including regenerative medicine; pharmacology and drug discovery; bioinformatics and genomics; and integrative cell and organ physiology. The interdisciplinary project is created in partnership with Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute and is slated for completion in 2015.

Founders of the J. Craig Venter Institute’s new 45,000-sf laboratory facility in La Jolla, Calif., aspire to create a technological marvel that not only defies the tradition of energy-intensive biological laboratories, but that also initiates a new generation of facilities that have both low environmental impact and an excellent working environment. In its founder’s words, the Institute is “a unique design that will meld the environmental philosophies of our genomics research with the sustainability goals that I believe must be part of all of our lives.”

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center VANTAGE Laboratory consolidates physically separate research facilities into one shared space in order to optimize collaboration and acceleration of new biological and clinical discoveries. The renovation of 13,300 gsf of underutilized and aged space in the original 1925 Medical Center building in the heart of the medical campus co-locates six existing cores: Genome Technology, BioVU (Vanderbilt’s DNA repository), DNA Resources, DNA Sequencing, Vanderbilt Microarray Shared Resource, and Flow Cytometry.