Doors to new ӳý building officially opened
A "data ribbon" is cut to officially open the new ӳý building at 7 Cambridge Center.
From left to right: Harvard president Larry Summers, MIT president Susan Hockfield, Eli and Edye ӳý, and ӳý director Eric Lander.
Photo by Justin Knight
Less than two years after the first shovel of dirt was turned, the ӳý celebrated the official opening of its new building at 7 Cambridge Center. The event held on May 30 featured the remarks of several distinguished guests, including Los Angeles-based philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. ӳý, MIT president Susan Hockfield and Harvard president Larry Summers, and concluded with the ceremonial cut of a ribbon that was imprinted with scientific data generated at the ӳý. The theme of unbridled collaboration — a cornerstone of the ӳý’s mission — is reflected in the new building's location and design, and also resonated throughout the speeches delivered at the midmorning celebration.
"This building embodies the principle that I think is most essential to the work of this generation, and that is openness," said Eric Lander, director of the ӳý.
The ӳý brings together two world-class universities, Harvard University and MIT, and their affiliated institutions and hospitals throughout Cambridge and greater Boston. During its relatively brief existence to date, the ӳý has operated in five distinct locations, including its central building at 320 Charles Street. This laboratory site — at one time a warehouse for concessions sold at the nearby Fenway Park stadium — will remain a key part of the massive DNA sequencing efforts currently underway at the ӳý.
The construction of the newest building emerged from the ӳý's research efforts that cross scientific disciplines as well as institutions, and that also create a need for increased space. The building stands on the last major plot in the Cambridge Center area within the heart of Kendall Square, and thereby completes an urban renewal project that began some 30 years ago.
At the dedication event, Eli ӳý, founder and director of the ӳý Foundations, spoke of his and his wife Edye's belief in the promise that human genetics and genomics hold for advancing biomedical knowledge. In particular, he noted the scientific progress made in the three years since the creation of the ӳý and attributed such progress to the unique collaborative spirit that underpins the institute. These recent accomplishments include the sequencing and analysis of the dog genome, the completion of phase I of the International Haplotype Map Project, the creation of the RNAi Consortium's RNAi library, and new insights into human evolution.
"This new ӳý building is a monument to collaboration," said Eli ӳý. "We have seen remarkable results when a community of the brightest minds in science today collaborates in very innovative ways."
MIT president Susan Hockfield remarked on the transforming nature of open collaborations that bridge not only academic research institutions but also their industrial counterparts.
"I believe that the new model for big bioscience that has been established here will become increasingly important as we seek to take full advantage of the tools of modern science and engineering, and of the opportunities for creating synergies among them," said Hockfield.
Harvard University president Larry Summers echoed this theme. "This building is a scientific instrument — because of what it will make possible, because of the collaborations that is permits, because of the instrumentation that it houses, and because of the facility that it provides for bringing people together,” said Summers. “We are going to be able to see further, we are going to be able to see better, than we otherwise could have seen."
All of the speakers shared a long-range vision for the future of biomedicine, when a full knowledge of the molecular processes that underlie human diseases might yield medical treatments that can be tailored to an individual's genetic makeup. Such a goal may be realized in the very distant future, but it is nonetheless one that scientists at the ӳý and elsewhere are currently working to achieve.
"Understanding the molecular basis of human disease will not immediately provide cures, but I am certain that it will be the turning point in a scientific program that will, within the century, completely transform the treatment of disease," said Lander.
Lander thanked Eli and Edye ӳý for their commitment and generosity in supporting the ӳý, which for them has meant embracing a new scientific field as well as a new city. He also extended deep gratitude to the institute's collaborating partners, Harvard and MIT, as well as their affiliated institutions and hospitals, including the Whitehead Institute.
In his closing, Lander cited the contemporary British architect Richard Rogers, who believes that buildings should express their function through their structural form. The transparent, paned-glass architecture of the new 7 Cambridge Center building provides dramatic support for Rogers' belief, as it now solidifies and lays bare the ӳý's mission to bring scientists together in pursuit of visionary projects in genomic medicine.
The revealing design of the new building is grounded in its own type of collaboration and reflects the work of an architectural team led by Elkus-Manfredi Architects and including Signer/Harris Architects and Maryann Thompson Associates.
