On Oct. 30, 2007, the Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJC) Institute of Health at Washington University was established, to house the Center for Cancer Biology toward the goal of scientific discovery and breakthroughs.

Construction began in the summer of 2007 on the new building, which housed not only BioMed 21 labs and support facilities but also two academic departments of the School of Medicine as well as some support operations of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The University will be adding 240,000 square feet of research space, and the estimated total cost of the building will be $235 million. As a hub for BioMed 21, the building will provide space for five newly created Interdisciplinary Research Centers (IRCs).

In other major developments exemplifying the progress of the BioMed 21 program, an $11 million, 16,000 square-foot, free-standing computing facility is being constructed to house the computing equipment needed to support the rapidly expanding research of the world-leading Genome Sequencing Center.

In addition, 15,000 square feet of space are being added to the previously established Center for Genome Sciences to support 11 new investigators who will design and interpret genome-anchored clinical studies linking disease traits to human genetic makeup.

The BioMed 21 IRCs will occupy two floors and other School of Medicine facilities will occupy another three floors of the planned 11 floors in the nearly 700,000 square-foot BJC Institute of Health at Washington University. The new Institute is at the southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and Children’s Place, directly across the street from the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building, a joint project of the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.