On Jun. 1, 1951, the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago opened its doors. Established with funds provided by Alabama businessman and philanthropist Ben May, it continues to receive generous support from the Ben May Charitable Trust.

It continues to receive generous support from the Ben May Charitable Trust and from Rose Geraci. The collective work done by the laboratories within the Ben May Department for Cancer Research has advanced cancer treatment by providing answers to fundamental biological questions and by finding applications for groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

Dedicating a cancer laboratory to exploring biology’s most fundamental behaviors was the idea of a surgeon. Charles B. Huggins, the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Surgery and 1966 Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, realized that cancer could be cured only through understanding how organisms function and why they misfunction. He sought scientific breakthroughs, answers large enough to change the course of cancer treatment.

In 1971, the Lab moved from two floors of the Nathan Goldblatt Memorial Hospital to a $3.7 million, four-story addition to the north wing of the Hospitals. Its named was changed from the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research to the Ben May lnstitute in 1986.

In 2005, the Ben May Institute moved to the newly constructed Gordon Center for Integrative Sciences. This multidisciplinary building was designed to enhance collaborations and the sharing of ideas among diverse researchers — biological and physical scientists working across a wide range of fields. Researchers in the GCIS continue to devote themselves to developing high-impact projects that merge the boundaries between multiple disciplines. A final name change of the BMICR to the Ben May Department for Cancer Research occurred in 2006, when they were granted departmental status by the University.