Utah Science, Technology and Research Building Opens on Former Golf Course

Sometimes sacrifices have to be made in the name of progress. In the case of Utah's just-opened USTAR collaborative research building on the Salt Lake City campus of the University of Utah, no one seems to be lamenting the loss of a golf course that used to lie between the Medical School and an engineering complex. Not when the new 208,000sf, $130M, state-of-the-art Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building is there instead, with all of its bright and shiny promise to drive innovation and economic development in the Beehive State.

[Photo, right, courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune]

We first reported on the then-under-construction Sorenson building last year in a blog on the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) and its mission to invest in Utah university research technologies with the aim of commercializing them for the benefit of the state's overall economy. In terms of new building construction, that initiative has been translated into two major research facilities to date: the BioInnovations Building on the Utah State University campus in North Logan, opened in early 2011; and now the Sorenson Biotechnology Building at the University of Utah, which celebrated its ribbon-cutting with great fanfare April 19, 2012.

[The newly-opened Sorenson/USTAR building, photo credit: University of Utah]

Highlights of the new building include:

• Will house collaborative research teams rather than specific departments
• Will create a bridge between the upper and lower campuses
• Is designed with infrastructure to support 3 more future USTAR buildings
• Will support 25-30 PIs in flexible open-space labs
• Has already allowed the University to successfully recruit 33 high-profile researchers, along with nearly $76M in grants and over $80M in pending research funding
• Named for the late Utah biomedical innovator, James Sorenson

The Sorenson Building has these components specifically:

• Nanofabrication unit
• Small Animal Imaging unit
• Optical Imaging unit
• Vivarium
• Neuroscience labs
• Biotechnology labs
• Data Center

Investigators began moving their labs into the new building in March.

Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. will be on the newly-united campus this September. If you are a biomedical researcher, a scientist in any of the life science fields, or a supplier of laboratory equipment who would like the opportunity to meet and network with biotechnology research professionals in the Salt Lake City area, plan on attending the Front Line Event™ on the University of Utah campus on September 20, 2012. This event is free to science professionals and is presented by Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. as part of a nationwide series of science tradeshows bringing products and solutions to research scientists.

For more information on exhibiting and getting a U of U funding report, click the button: