By Bradley Osburn
On Monday UF celebrated a ribbon-cutting for its new Clinical and Translational Research Building (CTRB), which is composed of the Institute on Aging and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. The facility, located at the northeast corner of Gale Lemerand Drive and Mowry Road, hosted a crowd of more than 200 attendees, including UF President Bernie Machen, Sen. Bill Nelson, and UF Health doctors, nurses and staff.
Conceived as a facility to house multiple medical disciplines under one roof, the CTRB’s goal is to shorten the estimated 17-year gap between clinical research and medical practice by having research and patient care happen side-by-side.
“This new facility is a key addition to the University of Florida campus,” Machen said. “It will help us close the gap between medical research and clinical care, with great benefits for patients. And by providing state-of-the-art facilities for hundreds of UF researchers, the CTRB will help the university attract grants and other external funding, positively impacting our regional and state economy.”
The spacious, 120,000-square-foot building was designed by architectural firm Perkins + Will, with sustainability, modern aesthetics and employee health in mind. Stairs are prominent throughout the building and are meant to encourage staff to get moving instead of taking the elevator, while treadmill desks dot the interior so that staff can get up from their desks and walk while they work. The facility was constructed from recycled building materials, 220 solar panels supply an estimated 8 to 12 percent of the facility’s power and light meters dim the lights during the day.
The facility was completed in June after two years of construction and cost $45 million – $30 million from a bond to be repaid by the College of Medicine and College of Public Health and Health Professions using overhead funds from research grants combined, and a $15 million grant from the NIH National Center for Research Resources.
The CTRB will host over 600 medical trainees and almost 5,000 patients, partner with 16 UF colleges and run dozens of active research projects.
