The University of British Columbia (UBC) has officially opened the Gordon B. Shrum Building, the country’s first purpose-built biomedical engineering hub and the new home of UBC’s School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME.)

The building is located on UBC’s main campus in Vancouver’s Point Grey area.

The five-storey, 158,000-square-foot structure is designed to support pioneering research and education in biomedical engineering. It houses laboratories, collaborative spaces, and teaching facilities that will help advance medical devices, AI-powered diagnostics, and transformative therapies.

“B.C.’s life sciences sector has emerged as a global leader, and the Gordon B. Shrum Building will play a central role in supporting critical research and the next generation of biomedical engineers who will fuel the sector’s continued growth and bring innovative health solutions to Canadians,” said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, UBC’s president and vice-chancellor.

UBC invested $114.4 million of its own funds, the provincial government provided $25 million and the project received about $30 million in philanthropic support from several contributors, including the Gordon B. Shrum Charitable Fund, the Conconi Family Foundation, and United Therapeutics Corporation.

Designed by Patkau Architects, the building brings together researchers, students, and industry under one roof. It replaces the SBME’s former dispersed locations across UBC’s main Vancouver campus.

The facility includes biomechanics labs with robots for injury-prevention research, a biodevice foundry for developing lab-on-a-chip diagnostics, digital labs designed to enhance cancer research through artificial intelligence, wet labs for stem cell research and tools for prototyping new medical technologies.

Pictured: Students working at UBC’s new purpose-built biomedical hub.

Photo: UBC/Phillip Chin

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