Emory University School of Medicine's Lab of the Year: A blueprint for next-generation research facilities

Emory University School of Medicine's recent SEFA Lab of the Year recognition represents a watershed moment in research facility design, offering invaluable lessons for institutions grappling with advancing scientific discovery while managing constrained capital budgets. Dierdre Thauer and Chirag Mistry illustrate key project targets, space metrics, innovative design solutions, and flexibility models which create spaces accelerating research breakthroughs while delivering measurable operational efficiencies. They chart the intensive planning process bringing together research faculty, facilities managers, laboratory planners, and design partners to identify critical pain points in existing research environment and incorporate how contemporary biomedical research actually happens — the collaboration patterns, equipment sharing models, and rapid protocol changes defining modern science.