Freidenrich building to enhance clinical studies
BY SUSAN IPAKTCHIAN
An architect’s rendering shows the front of the planned Jill and John Freidenrich Center for Translational Research to be located at 800 Welch Road. School officials expect the building to be completed in the summer of 2012..
A new building that will be home to much of the School of Medicine’s clinical studies as well as the staff who conduct human-subject research is headed to city officials for final approval.
University trustees in early February gave construction approval to the Jill and John Freidenrich Center for Translational Research. The three-story, 30,690-square-foot building will be located at 800 Welch Road. An existing building on that site (the former home of the Stanford Blood Center) will be torn down to make way for the new $21 million structure. The new center will be the focal point for conducting clinical research at Stanford and translating the findings into effective treatments.
Officials expect to present the construction plans in March to the Palo Alto Architectural Review Board. If the city grants the appropriate approvals, the existing building will be demolished and work on the new facility can begin, said Helena Cipres-Palacin, project manager for the building in the university’s Land, Buildings & Real Estate Office. The ARB gave preliminary approval to the project last August.
The building is expected to be completed in the summer of 2012.
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Clinical trials are a powerful tool in medical research. When scientists make a laboratory-based discovery that they believe may diagnose or treat a certain disease, they conduct carefully planned clinical trials on humans to ensure that these treatments actually lead to improved health and are being implemented safely, efficiently and equitably. If the discovery holds up through that process, these results can be translated from clinical studies into everyday clinical practice and health decision-making.
Harry Greenberg, MD, senior associate dean for research at the medical school, said the process of planning, conducting and evaluating a clinical trial requires the involvement of nurses, biostatisticians, project and data managers, lab personnel and those with expertise in such fields as ethics, nutrition and psychology. Currently, most of these personnel are scattered throughout the medical center campus, making collaboration difficult.
“The new Freidenrich Center will allow clinical investigators from all over the medical center and from all medical specialties to undertake important clinical research studies in a modern, state-of-the-art facility that will provide an efficient and welcoming environment to our adult and pediatric subjects,” Greenberg said.
The Freidenrich Center will provide space for 250 staff members involved in clinical research. It will house three organizations: the Clinical Trials Research Unit, which supports many of the studies involving human subjects conducted at Stanford; the Cancer Clinical Trials Office, which oversees clinical studies for cancer research; and Spectrum, the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award that provides guidance, training and infrastructure for clinical research at Stanford.
The building’s first floor will be where people participating in clinical trials can meet with research nurses and other staff members conducting the studies. For many of the people who participate in clinical trials at Stanford, the first floor is where they will get information about a trial, and undergo blood draws and other lab measurements or procedures. The first floor will offer specialized rooms for private discussions and counseling, as well as a customized pediatric research suite that will provide a friendly atmosphere for children and their families. It will also have outpatient suites, infusion rooms, remote-access observation rooms and an exercise physiology room.
The second and third floors will provide space for the research staff and administrators. In addition to making it easier for the staff to form interdisciplinary teams, the building’s location on Welch Road will enable the research staff to interact with physicians and other health-care professionals at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the Stanford Cancer Center.
“This facility will greatly enhance our ability to carry out the cutting-edge clinical trials that will lead to better treatments for cancer patients,” said Beverly Mitchell, MD, director of the Stanford Cancer Center. “It will also greatly increase the potential for interaction and collaboration among our clinical investigators and staff.”
Linda Gibson, program representative for the center in the medical school’s Office of Facilities Planning and Management, noted that the center will be energy- and water-efficient, and will use a sustainable design approach. The exterior of the building will include terra cotta and the Stanford limestone used in much of the new campus construction in recent years.
The building will be named for Jill and John Freidenrich, alumni and longtime Stanford supporters. Jill Freidenrich is a breast cancer survivor, and the couple said they wanted to aid the medical school in its quest to more quickly turn lab findings into therapies. In 2006, the couple donated $25 million to help fund the building as well as to support cancer research at Stanford. Funds are still being raised for construction costs.
The architect for the building is WRNS Studio of San Francisco, and the general contractor is Devcon Construction Inc. of Milpitas.
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