New Biomedical Research Centre Coming to Hammersmith Hospital
Labs within nine storey building will be used to seek cures for cancer and dementia
Artist's impression of the new building
A new biomedical research centre where scientists will develop cures for dementia and cancer looks set to be built at Hammersmith Hospital.
The Medical Research Council will build the nine-storey tower at the hospital’s Imperial College campus in White City, home to the London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS).
The LMS has said the laboratories will be used to tackle: “Major health challenges arising from changes in diet such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease and increased lifespan, namely dementia and cancer.”
It adds: “By tackling fundamental questions about our genes, environmental stresses such as diet, and the way our bodies age, [we] aim to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of diverse medical conditions.”
Susan Simon from the Medical Research Council said the new centre will have “the right facilities and technology to do really cutting edge and innovative research”.
The plans, which were approved on Tuesday, July 2, by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, show that floors two to six will be laboratories and offices.
The seventh floor will have a café, a 120-person seminar room, breakout areas, and an east-facing outside terrace.
Floors eight and nine will house “a biomedical research centre including specialised laboratory and research space”.
It will replace the former Cyclotron building ? named after the particle accelerator invented by Ernest Lawrence ? that was demolished in 2014. The old building in Du Cane Road was also used as a research centre “for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of diseases” until it closed in 2012.
At night, the tower will have an unusual lighting effect, created by rows of backlights that will shine from under a “bespoke repeating pattern” of perforations in its aluminium cladding.
Fifty cycle parking spaces will also be provided, and the building will include 12,000 sq ft of floor space.
During the construction, small sections of the Burlington Danes school playing field and Linford Christie Stadium will form part of the building site.
By LDRS Reporter Owen Sheppard