BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The University of Alabama at Birmingham opened its $192 million Shelby Biosciences Research Building on Oct. 20, adding laboratory space for biomedical and behavioral research and room to recruit as many as 80 additional researchers.
The eight-story, 228,735-square-foot facility brings together researchers from UAB’s Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. University leaders, elected officials, faculty and community partners attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the opening.
The project received $152 million in federal funding secured with the help of retired U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby and $20 million appropriated by the Alabama Legislature. The federal funding came through the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to UAB.
The building at 1500 University Blvd. includes laboratories, shared research resources and collaboration spaces. UAB said the facility will support work in cancer, neuroscience, mental health, aging, chronic disease, precision medicine and artificial intelligence-enabled health care.
“This new space dramatically expands our ability to recruit top scientific talent, support complex research programs and pursue discoveries that improve human health,” Dr. Anupam Agarwal, UAB’s senior vice president for medicine and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, said in a university news release.
Agarwal said the medical school hopes to recruit 60 to 80 investigators to fill the space, according to Bham Now’s coverage of the opening. The facility will support hundreds of faculty members, staff members, trainees and students, UAB said.
The Department of Psychology occupies the first two floors, while floors three through eight provide wet laboratory space. The building also includes dry laboratories and shared spaces intended to encourage researchers from different disciplines to work together.
UAB said bringing behavioral scientists, biomedical researchers and clinical investigators into the same facility will help translate laboratory findings into diagnostic tools, treatments and prevention strategies.
Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony June 28, 2024, when the project was known as the Biomedical Research and Psychology Building and had an announced cost of $190 million. UAB reported the final project cost as $192 million and said the facility was completed nine months ahead of schedule.
Birmingham-based Williams Blackstock Architects designed the building, and Brasfield & Gorrie served as the lead contractor.
The opening follows the 2025 opening of UAB’s Altec Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building. The university said its annual research expenditures have grown from less than $400 million to more than $900 million during President Ray Watts’ tenure.
I’m “I am confident the discoveries made in the Shelby Biosciences Research Building will deliver lasting benefits for generations to come,” Shelby said in UAB’s news release.