Texas Medical Center Research Campus One Step Closer to Reality

The concept of an integrated research campus fostering collaboration among multiple Texas Medical Center academic institutions is one step closer to reality.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently authorized construction of a new Basic Science Research Building (BSRB) for The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and also approved a land exchange for property on which to build the new research facility.

The $137.2 million BSRB will be the first facility built on the new Texas Medical Center Research Campus - which could feature up to six interconnected buildings and function as a single, unified research complex among neighboring institutions.

Pending final approval from the Texas Medical Center board of directors this fall, the land exchange agreement will involve The University of Texas System trading approximately 1.03 acres of land located west of The University of Texas-Houston Dental Branch for an equivalent amount of property owned by Texas Medical Center located north of the main M. D. Anderson complex.

Funding for M. D. Anderson's BSRB project will come from institutional funds and private philanthropy, according to Dr. John Mendelsohn, president of M. D. Anderson. The goal is to raise $75 million in philanthropic funds for the new research facility.

"The new Basic Science Research Building will be an important addition to the research activities of M. D. Anderson," says Dr. Mendelsohn. "The positioning of the facility as one of several new buildings planned for the Texas Medical Center Research Campus will provide a rich environment of collaboration among our re-searchers and those throughout the Texas Medical Center, creating a stimulating environment for discovery that can inspire great science and bring about solutions for a host of diseases, including cancer."

The research campus eventually will include new research facilities for The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center and Baylor College of Medicine, as well as M. D. Anderson. Research programs from other Texas Medical Center institutions also may be located on the campus. In addition, the site will eventually include auditoriums, seminar space and other facilities.

The research campus could grow to approximately 2 million square feet on land currently consisting of a parking area, the UT Dental Branch and The UT Mental Sciences Institute. Long-range plans for the UT-Houston Health Science Center call for relocation of the Mental Sciences Institute facility, after which its current facility will be demolished.

Construction of M. D. Anderson's 420,000-square-foot BSRB is expected to begin in fall 2000, with project completion in 2003. It will be built in part on K-Lot, a Texas Medical Center surface parking lot located northwest of M. D. Anderson.

The Texas Medical Center is developing a master plan to address issues regarding traffic around the new complex and parking.

The BSRB is M. D. Anderson's latest effort to further modernize and expand the institution's research facilities. It will be located adjacent to M. D. Anderson's Clinical Research Building, which opened last year.

"The BSRB will be designed as a generic biomedical research facility, capable of supporting a wide variety of research and laboratory requirements over the next 50 years," says Bill Daigneau, M. D. Anderson's associate vice president for operations and facilities management. Existing buildings can no longer accommodate the current and future technology required for sophisticated laboratory research, he explains.

The nine-story BSRB facility will house: six floors of basic science laboratories, with a flexible core design allowing for several different configurations around a center support zone; a vivarium for small animals; space for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (a shared program of M. D. Anderson and UT-Houston); interstitial space for laboratory utility support; two mechanical floors; and indoor walkways allowing for connection of M. D. Anderson to St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and Baylor.

The concept for a multi-institutional Texas Medical Center Research Campus resulted from discussions among Dr. Mendelsohn, UT-Houston president Dr. M. David Low and Baylor College of Medicine president Dr. Ralph D. Feigin about the shared need for additional research facilities and the diminishing availability of land on which to construct these buildings. They envision a joint tri-institutional research effort at the Texas Medical Center, which will be one of the largest concentrations of outstanding biomedical research in the world.

The three presidents subsequently developed a proposal and presented their idea to Texas Medical Center President Dr. Richard Wainerdi and the Texas Medical Center board. All continue to work closely to move the project to completion.

"The tri-institutional collaboration among major institutions reflects great vision for the future of biomedical research in the Texas Medical Center," says Dr. Wainerdi. "Through a sharing of resources, this collaboration could lead to many breakthroughs in alleviating disease among patients throughout the world."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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