DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- Ground has been broken for construction of a new building that will catalyze a unique partnership between UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Dallas, bringing their biomedical engineering programs together to foster innovative solutions for unmet medical needs.
This 150,000-square-foot building, located on the East Campus of UT Southwestern Medical Center, is made possible by a transformative gift from Texas Instruments and funds from the Permanent University Fund of the University of Texas System. The new facility has been named the Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building.
“This new facility will deepen the collaboration between UT Southwestern and UT Dallas to advance transformational bioengineering research to improve patient care. By integrating biomedical engineering with advances in related fields such as artificial intelligence, molecular imaging, robotics, and genetic engineering, the UTSW-UTD collaborations will further solidify North Texas as a hub for biomedical innovation,” said Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern Medical Center, who holds the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science.
“Biomedical engineering and science are a major driver of UT Dallas’ rapidly growing research portfolio,” said Richard C. Benson, Ph.D., President of UT Dallas and the Eugene McDermott Distinguished University Chair of Leadership. “The already robust partnership between UT Dallas and UT Southwestern will take another huge step forward upon the launch of our shared facilities. This partnership will also provide students and faculty with more opportunities to create transformative technologies that will improve lives. We are grateful for the visionary support of Texas Instruments in this endeavor.”
Scheduled for completion in 2023, the new five-story Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building will support the work of dozens of faculty and their teams with both wet and dry laboratory space, as well as areas designated specifically to promote multidisciplinary interactions. A Biodesign Center will feature a large assembly/design studio, a metal fabrication shop, and rooms for 3D printing.
“Our gift reflects our confidence in the brilliant minds at UT Southwestern and UT Dallas – to combine medical and engineering talent and resources to solve problems that will advance patient care,” said Rich Templeton, Chairman, President and CEO of Texas Instruments. “What gets me personally excited is that semiconductor technology will be at the center of the medical discoveries that are made inside this new building.”
Since launching its Biomedical Engineering Department in 2010, UT Dallas’ undergraduate bioengineering program has become the third largest in the U.S. based on enrollment, according to the American Society for Engineering Education, and its graduate program ranks third, according to U.S. News & World Report, among biomedical engineering programs at Texas public universities, attracting students from around the world. In addition, support from TI, the UT System and the O’Donnell Foundation made it possible for UTD to establish in 2012 the Texas Biomedical Device Center. The UT Southwestern BME Program offers a Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering as part of the medical center’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.