Aiming to train the next generation of researchers and bolster Dallas’ reputation as a hub for the biosciences, UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Dallas dedicated a new bioengineering building on Thursday.
Presidents of both universities, the UT system chancellor and Texas Instruments’ CEO were in attendance to dedicate the $120 million, 150,000-square-foot Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building on UT Southwestern’s east campus. State, regional and business leaders converged for an outdoor ribbon cutting before a tour of the laboratories.
“How incredible is it that medicine and engineering — what were not so long ago two completely different fields — are now working together to innovate for the good of humanity?” Texas Instruments CEO Haviv Ilan said at the event.
The dedication has been years in the making. UT System’s Board of Regents approved $90 million in bond proceeds for the building in 2019, and Dallas-based semiconductor company Texas Instruments provided $15 million for the facility. The remaining $15 million came from philanthropic support from UT Dallas and UT Southwestern. The project broke ground in 2021.
The completed five-story building includes wet and dry laboratories, 3D printing rooms and a metal fabrication shop for prototyping biomedical devices.
UT Dallas president Richard Benson said the building will attract students for bioscience research and turn out graduates with skills attractive to area companies. Undergraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral students will work in 32 research labs, 16 from each campus.
“Right now, biomedical engineering and science is just a huge part of our research portfolio, and also a huge attractor for students,” he said. “In both of these ways — the applied research, and the types of students that we graduate — this will really be a boost to the D-FW economy.”
At the research facility, scientists from both schools will collaborate on projects. UT Southwestern’s medical expertise will complement UT Dallas’ research on topics such as pain relief and nanotechnology for medical treatment, Benson said.
“There are distinct strengths across each of our two institutions, and then there are areas where faculty at each institution are working in … which have very distinct synergies and overlap,” said Dr. Daniel Podolsky, UT Southwestern’s president. “Bringing them together in this one location, where the unplanned interactions can happen, is a recipe for unexpected, serendipitous types of initiatives.”
The scope of issues tackled by researchers in the building could include developing targeted cancer therapies, improving medical imaging technology and treating brain disease. Podolsky said research will be primarily investigator-driven, allowing faculty to identify areas of growth in the biomedical field and pursue solutions.
The building’s proximity to UT Southwestern’s medical campus means researchers can work to improve medical imaging and drug delivery not far from the clinicians who stand to benefit.
Samuel Achilefu, chairman of UT Southwestern’s biomedical engineering department, researches precise cancer detection and removal. He said he is excited for the facility to pair medical professionals and engineers not as strangers but as partners.
“We can partner with clinicians and then prototype a solution right here in the building,” he said, “check if it works and translate it directly to the patient.”
The building is part of Dallas’ larger endeavor to further its reputation as a biotech incubator.
In September, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health announced that Dallas will serve as one of three U.S. hubs for a $2.5 billion federal biotech research agency alongside Cambridge, Mass., and Washington, D.C. The hub will be headquartered at the 26-acre life sciences campus at Pegasus Park.
Dallas-based Lyda Hill Philanthropies, a major funder of life sciences research, spearheaded Dallas’ application to host the hub. Earlier this year, the firm invested $4 million with Austin-based Research Bridge Partners to help UT Southwestern researchers turn their scientific findings into biotechnology companies.
The area has experienced great growth over the past six to eight years, Benson said, with no sign of slowing down.
Adithi Ramakrishnan is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.
