Genomics

An explosion in computation and large data set analyses is challenging the nature and processes of translational research, significantly impacting how such institutions plan for space needs. The link between strategic planning, programming, and design is much more dynamic, and requires faster feedback and the development of new metrics to drive value creation through strategic planning.

"That increase in computation has a significant impact on how we strategically plan for translational research,” says Andy Snyder, AIA, principal/architect at NBBJ.

Illumina is expanding its San Diego operations with the development of a 300,000-sf facility for the production of technologies for genetic analysis. Designed by Ewing Cole, the project will create advanced manufacturing space, laboratories, offices, warehousing, and support. BNBuilders is providing both pre-construction and construction services for the interior buildout of the facility as well as the expansion of the central plant. Completion is expected in late 2016.

The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) is planning a $75 million mouse production facility in Ellsworth, Maine. The project involves the complete renovation of an existing 143,000-sf building to create advanced vivarium space for the breeding and housing of mice for genetic research. The facility will consolidate all of JAX’s East Coast production operations in a single location, enabling the company’s Bar Harbor campus to provide additional research, education, and conference space.

George Washington University opened the $275 million Science and Engineering Hall in March of 2015 in Washington, D.C. Located on the Foggy Bottom campus, the 500,000-sf interdisciplinary facility provides classrooms, integrated core facilities, and collaborative research spaces. Designed by Ballinger, the facility houses laboratories for biomedical engineering, nanofabrication, molecular genetics, imaging, and environmental engineering. The three-story high bay lab will support structural testing for large-scale construction components.

The 89,700-sf, seven-story expansion of the Wistar Institute increases research space from 30 to 45 labs, with new support areas, including tissue culture rooms, fume hood alcoves, equipment alcoves, and a shared cold room. Each of the five lab floors contains an open-plan research lab for four professors and their research teams of 35 to 40 to work collaboratively on cancer research, genetics, and vaccine development. Flexible, moveable lab benches will accommodate changing research needs.

Inova Health is acquiring a 117-acre campus in Merrifield, Va., as the site for a new biomedical research complex called the Center for Personalized Health. The first phase of construction will create the Inova Translational Medicine Institute and the Inova Comprehensive Cancer and Research Institute. The $200 million, 180,000-sf project is slated for occupancy by early 2018. Existing facilities on the campus will be renovated to provide advanced laboratory space for collaborative genomics research.

The University of Utah will renovate the existing 71,000-sf George Thomas building to create the Gary & Ann Crocker Science Center in Salt Lake City. The existing structure will be seismically upgraded and reconfigured, and a 52,500-sf addition will be built to accommodate laboratories for the Cell and Genome Research Center. The completed four-story, 123,500-sf facility will also provide lecture halls, classrooms, a café, a business incubator, and a full-height atrium. The project team includes EDA Architects and Okland Construction.

The Jackson Laboratory will begin construction in 2015 on the $21 million Center for Biometric Analysis in Bar Harbor, Maine. Supporting research on the genetic origins of disease, the four-story, 16,000-sf facility will house advanced technologies for imaging, measurement, gene sequencing, and data processing. The estimated duration of construction is 18 months.

Dalhousie University opened the Zebrafish Core Facility in October of 2014 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Located in the Life Sciences Research Institute, the $1.8 million laboratory will support interdisciplinary biomedical research on cancer, neuroscience, and genetics. Housing up to 75,000 adult fish, the 4,000-sf facility features a molecular lab and specialized rooms for cell and tissue studies.

The four-story Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine (JAX GM), containing both biological and computational lab space arranged around a central atrium, houses 160 biomedical researchers, technicians, and support staff from five different temporary spaces on the University of Connecticut Health Center campus. The number of occupants is expected to grow to 300 within three years, and the labs are flexible enough to accommodate the expected trend away from the wet bench toward more computational research.

The new four-story Cancer and Cardiovascular Research Building at the University of Minnesota consists of the 158,000-sf Cancer Research Building, a 96,000-sf addition to the Lillehei Heart Research Building, and a 34,000-sf vivarium used by the entire Biomedical Discovery District. The facility houses the University’s Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, as well as two groups of investigators from Masonic Cancer Center: chemical biologists focusing on studying chemical carcinogens as a cause of cancer, and faculty focusing on novel therapeutic strategies to fight cancer.

The Jackson Laboratory opened the $135 million JAX Genomic Medicine facility in October of 2014 in Farmington, Conn. Located on 17 acres at the University of Connecticut Health Science Center, the four-story, 183,500-sf building features 17 wet labs and 17 dry labs arranged in flexible, collaborative clusters. The facility also provides core service labs, two large conference rooms, offices, a data center, and a 200-seat auditorium.

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.