Loyola to start construction on $137M medical research and education building in August

Loyola University Chicago will break ground Aug. 16 on a $137 million medical research and education building to support nearly 500 scientists and staff working together to improve human health.

The Loyola University Chicago Center for Translational Research and Education, a collaboration between Loyola University Health System and CHE-Trinity, will be located on the university's Health Sciences Campus. The five-story, 227,000-square-foot building is scheduled to open in April 2016.

The center will include open laboratory and support space for 72 principal investigators plus space for 40 lead scientists engaged in desktop research such as public health, health services, nursing, bioinformatics and epidemiology. A 250-seat auditorium will provide a unique link with the local community, serving primarily as a showcase for health-related programming.

Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., president and CEO of Loyola University Chicago, said, "This project is one of the most significant outcomes of the partnership of Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University Health System and CHE-Trinity." In 2011, CHE-Trinity acquired the health system from the university. As part of this agreement, the university and CHE-Trinity each committed to share the cost of a $150 million research enterprise, which comprises the $137 million building and funding to attract and support leading researchers.

Larry M. Goldberg, president and CEO of Loyola University Health System, said research conducted at the center "will translate medical discoveries into practical applications that will improve how we prevent, diagnose and treat disease. This research will help advance the health system's clinical programs, including cardiovascular disease, oncology, neuroscience, infectious disease and immunology, burn and shock trauma and public health."

The center will accommodate principal investigators, postdoctoral trainees, physicians, nurses, fellows, graduate students and students from Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.

"The Center for Translational Research and Education will lift us to the next level of discovery, providing space where today's ideas will grow into tomorrow's breakthroughs," said Richard L. Gamelli, MD, FACS, senior vice president and provost of Health Sciences of Loyola University Chicago. "It is being built on the precept that world-class health science research must be applied at the patient's bedside to achieve the greatest good."

Researchers now scattered among buildings throughout the Health Sciences Campus will be centralized in the research and education center, rising on what is now a parking lot between the medical school and an office building.

"Bringing our community of scientists together into one location will foster greater collaboration, which will lead to more discoveries and rapid translation into interventions for prevention and treatment of disease," said Richard H. Kennedy, PhD, vice provost for Research and Graduate Programs for Loyola University Chicago's Health Sciences Division. "Researchers no longer work alone. Science today is a team effort. The research and education center is designed to facilitate such teamwork."