Biomedical Innovations Building, designed to foster collaboration, is dedicated

Under construction for three years, the new Biomedical Innovations Building was dedicated Nov. 18 during a livestreamed ceremony attended by Stanford University leaders and senior faculty members.

The 225,000-square-foot, $210 million building on Pasteur Drive is shared by a diverse cast of researchers from across Stanford Medicine. 

“The BMI Building will nourish and foster the type of collaboration we know is instrumental for developing tomorrow’s treatments and cures,” Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, said. “Under one roof, and with spaces that encourage formal and informal interactions that fuel innovation and precision health, we brought together researchers from cardiovascular medicine, pediatrics, orthopaedics, immunotherapy, personalized genomics, asthma and allergy, and otolaryngology.”

Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD; Jeff Raikes, chair of the university’s board of trustees; and faculty building committee chairs Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, the Naddisy Foundation Professor in Pediatric Food Allergy, Immunology, and Asthma, and Robert Jackler, MD, Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor in Otorhinolaryngology, also spoke at the dedication, marking the opening by conveying gratitude to those who contributed to the conception and realization of the newest campus addition. 

The goal of locating a variety of specialists under one roof is to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration by bringing like- and not-so-like-minded researchers together to develop ideas and benefit from one another’s expertise.

We’re in a new era of research that’s not bound by scientific silos, Minor said, and the Biomedical Innovations Building, which accommodates more than 600 lab benches, supports cross-disciplinary work through an open layout with meeting spaces and lounges on every floor. The building, which was designed and constructed by the School of Medicine facilities team; Stanford Land, Buildings & Real Estate; ZGF Architects; and the construction firm Whiting Turner, will accommodate nearly 1,000 faculty, staff and students.

“Over the long term, this building will help us foster an ecosystem where bridging fundamental science and next-generation drugs is the new norm at Stanford and across academia,” Tessier-Lavigne said. “This will be a place where we prototype innovative medicines and undertake biological studies that pave the way to precision health and next-generation therapeutic discovery.”