UAB cut the ribbon Tuesday morning on its new $192 million Shelby Biosciences Research Building, an eight-story, 228,735-square-foot facility off University Boulevard in Birmingham that university leaders say will expand research into cancer, mental health, aging and chronic disease. The building is named for former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, who helped secure $152 million in federal funding for the project, with the Alabama legislature kicking in another $20 million.
A Federal and State Funding Mix Years in the Making
According to WBRC, the $152 million in federal funding Shelby helped secure was just one piece of a larger financial puzzle years in the making. That federal money moved through the Health Resources and Services Administration in two separate $76 million appropriations, with the second installment folded into the federal omnibus spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law on December 29, 2022, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. Shelby retired from the Senate in January 2023 after 36 years in office.
The building brings together wet and dry research labs designed to house scientists from both the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and the Department of Psychology within UAB's College of Arts and Sciences, per the same report. That cross-disciplinary pairing is meant to put biomedical, behavioral and clinical researchers under one roof rather than scattering them across campus.
Honoring Shelby's Late Wife
The building's name carries personal weight beyond the funding ledger. At the ceremony, Shelby thanked the UAB Board of Trustees for honoring him and his late wife by naming the building, and said its outcomes will save lives and improve lives everywhere.
Dr. Anupam Agarwal, senior vice president for medicine and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, said the building's conversations, conference rooms and labs will be where significant breakthroughs begin. Tuesday's dedication drew Shelby, UAB President Ray Watts, elected officials and campus leadership to the 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting, according to the Alabama Political Reporter.
Building Toward a $1 Billion Research Target
The new building is expected to expand UAB's biomedical, behavioral and clinical research capacity, with university officials pointing to potential advancements in cancer treatment, mental health, aging, chronic disease, neuroscience, precision medicine and artificial intelligence-enabled health care. It's also expected to help UAB recruit additional researchers to the Heersink School of Medicine, a recruitment push aided by physician and entrepreneur Dr. Marnix E. Heersink's $95 million naming gift to the medical school in September 2021, later expanded to $100 million in December 2023, which created up to 20 new endowed faculty positions, per Business Alabama Magazine.
UAB's Research Strategic Initiative sets a goal of reaching $1 billion in annual research expenditures campuswide, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. UAB recorded $774.5 million in research awards in FY2023.
Brasfield & Gorrie was selected as general contractor on the project. The finished facility now stands at 1500 University Boulevard in Birmingham, per UAB Financial Affairs, as the newest piece of a research campus aiming to grow well beyond its current footprint.
