Dear Colleagues,

On April 24, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a major gift of $70 million to the University of Washington (UW) to fund the construction of critically needed research space for the UW School of Medicine and to support collaborative global-health initiatives. The Gates Foundation gift is the largest single private donation to an institution of higher education in the Northwest.

The gift will secure the construction of a $150 million, 265,000 square-foot building near the west side of the UW Health Sciences complex in Seattle. The building will be located on the southeast corner of Pacific Street and 15th Ave. NE. The Department of Genome Sciences and the Department of Bioengineering will share this facility.

The gift will foster research that uses genomic approaches to seek a better understanding of health and disease. The funds will create research space that UW Medicine urgently requires at a time when genomics is opening unparalleled biomedical frontiers. UW Medicine is fortunate to have a number of the world’s top genome scientists. Now UW Medicine will be able to build an environment that inspires and encourages the collaboration necessary to conduct studies that will lead to global health advances.

The new building will house a blend of four elements crucial to the future of genomics research: computational biology, technology development, experimental genetics, and human genetics. In addition, all of the programs in the Department of Bioengineering will be located in this facility. The building has been designed for scientists to interact in ways that spur innovation and to work in an atmosphere conducive to cooperative achievement. Construction is scheduled to start in August. The building is expected to open in phases beginning in the autumn of 2005 with the faculty of the Department of Bioengineering. The architects are Anshen + Allen of Los Angeles, and the general contractor is Hoffman Construction.

Additional funding for the new building includes $12 million from the federal government, $10 million from the Whitaker Foundation, and gifts from other private sources.

UW Medicine is grateful for the unprecedented contributions from the Gates Foundation and private donors, a commitment that recognizes the importance of this scientific and medical effort toward improving world health, and for the public funds awarded for this work.
medical innovation.