Stony Brook University Breaks Ground on New Medical and Research Translation Facility

On November 13, Stony Brook University broke ground on its new Medical and Research Translation Building (MART). With a projected completion date of 2016, the facility will provide a state-of-the-art medical facility and collaborative laboratory environment for physicians and scientists.

“MART will help advance both the study and practice of medicine at Stony Brook University,” says president of Stony Brook University Samuel L. Stanley Jr. “It is a place where researchers and clinicians will come together to translate basic and applied research findings into new diagnostics and therapeutics that will improve the lives of people in our region and around the world.”

MART will be a 245,000-square-foot, 8-story building that will include research laboratories, a conference center and educational spaces, as well as space devoted to treating patients. By bringing together experts from a variety of fields, it is the university’s hope that the shared space will encourage breakthrough research on new medical technologies and cancer treatments by scientists, clinical researchers and doctors.

Those who broke ground included Governor Andrew Cuomo; Samuel L. Stanley Jr.; Jim Simons, chairman of the board at the Simons Foundation; Kenneth Kaushansky, dean and senior vice president of health sciences of Stony Brook University School of Medicine; and L. Reuven Pasternak, CEO of Stony Brook University Hospital and Vice President for Health Systems at Stony Brook Medicine.

Research at MART will focus primarily on cancer. “We are using a multidisciplinary approach that will bring all of the University’s extraordinary resources in imaging, public health, drug development, engineering, biomedical informatics, high performance computing and basic science research to bear on this complex problem,” says Stanley.

MART will serve not only as a cutting edge research facility, but also as a top-notch educational institution. “The new MART facility will be a premier center of advanced medical research and treatment, provide our students with the experience needed for careers in the medical field, as well as provide Long Island residents with quality cancer care,” says Governor Cuomo.

The $194-million project is part of a larger, $432 million expansion plan for the Stony Brook Medicine campus.

“Marilyn and I are extremely pleased to see the MART building on the verge of construction,” says Jim Simons. “We have great confidence that outstanding work will go in within its walls, leading to new cures and rescued lives.”

The new facility is supported in part by the Simons Foundation’s $50 million challenge grant to Stony Brook in 2011, earmarked for work at Stony Brook in the life sciences. The challenge grant was quickly matched by various donors, and those funds were allocated to various programs as per the donor’s intent. In addition, a $35 million state grant to build the MART was given to the university as a result of a $50 million personal contribution from Jim and Marilyn Simons.

For more information, please visit StonyBrook.edu.