University of Colorado opens DNA Biorepository to collect and study genetic biomarkers

The University of Colorado Health’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and Personalized Medicine (BIPM) has opened its DNA Biorepository in the recently constructed Bioscience 2 building near the Anschutz Medical Campus. Architecture staff ​from HDR’s Denver office worked on the project, which began in April 2015. Programming started in May, and design followed in June. The facility opened in November, and within a month, about 1,000 patients had consented to a blood-sample collection process that involves extracting DNA in order to study tens of thousands of genetic biomarkers.

The project involved CU Denver, UC Health, and a newly recruited personalized medicine team from Johns Hopkins University. It was a highly technical project that was funded, designed and constructed by a collaborative team that included Affiliated Engineers out of Madison, WI, Saunders Construction in Denver and HDR.

In conjunction with this project, work on a new space for the CU Department of Pathology’s Colorado Molecular Correlates Laboratory (CMOCO), which pursues cancer-associated genes with high-speed genetic sequencing, should wrap up in the spring.