UT, Knoxville and UT Medical Center dedicate new Center for Precision Health
The facility includes 13,000 square feet of open research, innovation, and ideation space.
Leaders from the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, and the UT Medical Center (UTMC) gathered late Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the opening of the Center for Precision Health, a new shared space occupying the third floor of the Orthopaedic Institute in the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm.
The center — which includes areas for a clinical core facility, advanced medical device innovations, entrepreneurial development, and computational medicine — will house UTK faculty, UTMC physicians, and community partners and is designed to facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration that will improve the lives of Tennesseans.
Housed in the 91,000 square foot, three-year-old Orthopaedic Institute at the UT Research Park, the Center is approximately 13,000 square feet of open research, innovation, and ideation space, housing research instrumentation and resources supporting 3D bioprinting, computational and artificial intelligence-driven simulation and modeling, as well as regenerative medicine.
Several Knoxville start-ups occupy space in the Center, including Orion Therapeutics Inc. and iO Urology, winner of the 2023 PYA-sponsored Ballard Innovation Award. Their activities – and those of other area life science start-ups – will be enhanced by a new initiative from UT’s Spark Innovation Center. Known as the Spark BioHub in the Center for Precision Health, the program will combine Spark’s expertise in entrepreneurial coaching with a focus on life sciences start-ups.
In addition, approximately 3,000 square feet of space is dedicated to translational medicine and patient engagement, in collaboration with University Orthopedic Surgeons.
A cross-section of business leaders joined University leaders, both System and campus, along with representatives from the UT Medical Center, attended the brief dedication program followed by tours of the new Center.
“Our goal for the Center for Precision Health has always been to create a space where researchers, physicians and students can work together to find solutions for the health challenges facing the people of Tennessee and beyond,” said UT, Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman. “I can’t wait to see the incredible discoveries that take place here and all the ways this center supports excellence in research.”
Dr. Keith Gray, UTMC President and Chief Executive Officer, noted that ideas grow into discoveries and discoveries grow into new treatments for afflictions and diseases.
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