PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania will construct a $370 million, state-of-the-art biomedical research facility as part of an ongoing commitment to strengthen its international leadership in biomedical discovery.

Designed by architect Rafael Vinoly of Rafael Vinoly Architects PC, the building will be physically integrated with the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center now under construction on the former Civic Center site.

The focus of the research building will be to house research initiatives that integrate the range of biomedical disciplines required to achieve advances in the understanding of disease and the development of new therapies.

"This magnificent new building will accelerate Penn Medicine's innovative research enterprise," Penn President Amy Gutmann said.  "By design, the new building will bring together the rich and complex biomedical disciplines required to achieve progress in the conquest of disease."

In addition to providing space for interdisciplinary research, the building's close physical proximity to Penn Medicine's patient-care facilities in the new Perelman Center is intended to facilitate communication and the exchange of ideas among clinicians and researchers on new discoveries, techniques and technologies.  In addition to biomedical laboratories, the building will include clinical/patient-oriented research facilities.

"This new facility will be the latest addition in further establishing Penn Medicine as one of the finest research institutions in the world," David L. Cohen, chairman of the board of Penn Medicine, said.  "The building will enable us to capitalize on our established strengths in multiple disciplines and sharpen our focus on transforming new knowledge into clinical advances for the good of patients everywhere."

The biomedical research facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2010.  By locating it with both the Raymond and Ruth Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, scheduled to open in 2008, and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center, set to open in 2009, the resulting complex of buildings will make Penn Medicine one of the most vital biomedical research environments in the world.

"This building represents an exciting new highpoint in our tradition of collaborative medical inquiry," Arthur H. Rubenstein, executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the health system and dean of the School of Medicine, said.  "Through its shared common spaces and support functions, as well as a rich matrix of working alliances for research and therapeutic progress, it will unquestionably play a central role in Penn Medicine's ongoing contribution to the improved health of humankind."