The internationally respected Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is to be rebuilt on a new site following an acquisition negotiated by Colliers CRE on behalf of the Medical Research Council (MRC). The LMB is to move to a 10-acre site adjacent to Addenbrooke's Hospital in a deal that is the first step in a £197M redevelopment of the facility. LMB will become the first building of the proposed 70 acre extension to the Cambridge Bio-Medical Campus, a substantial development of R&D, clinical and teaching space that will total 2.3 million sq ft. The commercial R&D space on the campus will be developed by Cambridge Medipark Ltd, a joint venture between US REIT Liberty Property Trust and Countryside Properties.
"The LMB proposes to replace its 46 year old building with a new 285,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility. They need the best possible research environment so they can attract and retain the world's leading medical researchers," explains Michael Jones of Colliers CRE in Cambridge.
The Cambridge-based LMB has produced 13 Nobel Prize winners and is where DNA coding was first unravelled. The Medical Research Council, which runs LMB, has a £67M grant from the government and will use its own funds to meet the remainder of the cost of the new building. The new facility will enable research into areas such as neurobiology and the redevelopment will also help the lab to expand its commercial activities.
Announcing the government's grant award, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham recently said, "This laboratory is a key example of the UK leading the world in conducting basic research, translating it into health benefits and commercialising it into wealth benefits.
"Antibody research carried out at LMB has resulted in cancer drugs such as Herceptin and current research is looking at monoclonal antibodies to treat asthma. Scientists based at the Cambridge laboratory have helped start more than a dozen companies."
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