Steve J. Schwab, MD, chancellor for UTHSC, and UT President Joe DiPietro led the groundbreaking ceremony for the Translational Science Research Building, the newest building to begin construction on the main campus in Memphis.
Earlier today, Steve J. Schwab, MD, chancellor for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), and UT President Joe DiPietro led the groundbreaking ceremony for the Translational Science Research Building (TSRB), the newest building to begin construction on the UTHSC main campus in Memphis.
“This is a seminal event for our institution because it reflects two things,” Chancellor Schwab stated, “the UTHSC commitment to active research expansion, and this is the first in a series of new construction initiatives as we transform the UTHSC campus.” He explained, “This building, as with the multi-discipline Cancer Research Building, which stands adjacent to this construction site, will also be a multi-discipline research facility. It will house investigators from all colleges and departments, working on cardiovascular disease. More than 40 investigators will work together in the Translational Science Research Building on advances in heart and blood vessel disease.”
The TSRB will be a four-story, 135,000-square-foot structure that reflects the same layout as the UTHSC Cancer Research Building. TSRB laboratories will be designed using an open format with an interior hallway connecting each of the labs on a given floor. The connectivity allows researchers easy access to common equipment and to each other. Elevated walkways on the second, third and fourth floors of the new building will connect the TSRB with the Cancer Research Building. TSRB construction will begin immediately. The building is expected to open in fall 2013.
“UT does three things very well,” observed President DiPietro. “We educate, we discover and we connect. Looking at education, discovery and connecting, no place is more important than the Health Science Center in keeping Tennessee healthy. They generate solutions from this research enterprise