USC Breaks Ground on $80 Million Stem Cell Facility

LOS ANGELES — Groundbreaking ceremonies were held at the University of Southern California for a new $80 million facility for stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

The 87,500-square-foot building at the Keck School of Medicine was designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP and is expected be a hub for integrative biomedical research at the university’s medical science campus.

The project is funded with a public-private partnership under the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was created with the 2004 passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.

The initiative will borrow and spend $3 billion over 10 years to support stem cell research. USC was awarded nearly $27 million for the facility, which is supplemented by a $30 million gift that was given to the university in 2006.

The groundbreaking is “a very important step in a mission set by the voters of California to place the state at the forefront for stem cell research,” say Carmen Puliafito, dean of the Keck School of Medicine.

The five-story building will house four floors of laboratories that are designed to be flexible to allow for different configurations, depending on the needs of researchers.