Capella

University of Cambridge

Capella

Project Capella

Client: University of Cambridge

Architects: Fairhurst Design Group

Main Contractor: Kier Major Projects

Project Value: £83m

Open date: Q2 2018

This latest addition in the continuing development of the prestigious Cambridge Biomedical Campus is a joint funding collaboration between Wellcome and The Medical Research Council, located next to the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and just west of the Addenbrookes Hospital. The six-storey laboratory building, due for completion in the second quarter of 2018, will provide 190,000 sq ft of high specification research facility. The project was fast-tracked from design to site start in just 12 months.

The building, which is aiming for a BREEAM Excellent rating, will be occupied by three Cambridge Biomedical Institutions - The Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI), Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge Centre for Haematopoiesis and Haematological Malignancies (CCHHM) and Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) Cell Therapies Centre.

This will allow all CSCI research groups, currently dispersed in separate locations across the City, to work together in one place and will result in a fully integrated, vibrant and cohesive stem cell community, within a purpose-built new building, ideally placed to capitalise on its unique intellectual and clinical environment.

To accommodate the research that each of the above institutions will perform, specialist laboratories have been constructed to maximise available space and provide a flexible and modular approach to the operation of the facility.

The building has been divided into five distinct functional areas:

WET LABORATORIES

Bio-safety Level 2 laboratory space for general laboratory operations which is modular and reconfigurable. Additional Bio-safety Level 3 space will provide a research area primarily used by the CITIID group in the study of infectious diseases.

WRITE UP AREAS

These provide sufficient desk space with IT support to permit the write up of experiments and studies performed in the laboratories. The write up areas will be located adjacent to each laboratory.

BIOINFORMATICS

Bioinformatics hubs will be supplied at suitable locations to support the computational biology needs for each institute.

SHARED FACILITIES

There are several shared facilities which will be installed in areas adjacent to the wet laboratory areas. These include: Tissue Culture rooms; Gel rooms; Prep and Equipment rooms; Cold room; Freezer room and Lab imaging areas.

GMP FACILITY

A facility compliant with current GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) guidelines, as described by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will be included within the building.

Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physics and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge:

“Project Capella will bring together a number of medical research groups to create a centre of excellence and provide a foundation for the development of new medical treatments.  We are extremely proud of the achievements of the development team thus far and the vision it has created for our biomedical research laboratories.”

CCTech are Providing:

Design support for the CL3 and GMP elements of the project in the early stages with the development of the URS. With the GMP and
CL3 elements we are moving to Validation and Regulatory Compliance, Burn-in and Soft Landings as the project progresses.

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