UTM and UTSC welcome major new facility developments
UTM’s New Science Building will serve its progress in the life sciences while UTSC has secured a hefty donation for its new medical school building.
On September 20, the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) opened its doors to the New Science Building (NSB). With an initial projected cost of C$152.9 million, the four-story and 15,550 square-metre research facility will help support numerous key academic pursuits for students at UTM.
With brand-new, state-of-the-art wet labs, the NSB has met an urgent need for advanced research facilities with the new high-performance computing data centre. It also features 90,000 square feet of lab space along with fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, micro MRI and CT imagers, and 500 animal cages.
The building will be the new home of the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry (CMC)—a space that will focus on the development of new drugs and the optimization of the drug development process. The CMC is projected to expand its staff, estimated to grow by 130 students, research associates and post-doctoral fellows.
NSB will also house UTM’s forensic science program and the University of Toronto’s (U of T) first wet lab incubator—SpinUp—which answers the demand for accessible and affordable wet lab spaces that start-up founders in the life sciences can use to develop their ideas to attract investment.
Even while housing copious facilities and data centres, the NSB prioritized sustainability by using 65 per cent less energy than buildings of comparable size and function.
Using geothermal and solar energy, heat pumps, rainwater reclamation, and a green roof, the building is on track to receive a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification. The sustainability-conscious design of the building speaks to U of T’s strong commitment to sustainability—which has landed it the title of 2024’s most sustainable university in the world with an overall score of 100.
Unfolding more change and development next door
U of T Scarborough (UTSC) received a C$25 million donation to construct a state-of-the-art building for the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH).
Projected to open in 2026, the building—which will be named the Myron and Berna Garron Health Sciences Complex in honour of its donors—will house the first medical school in the Eastern Greater Toronto Area and serve as a hub for undergraduate students in the health sciences at UTSC.
The facility is expected to serve 160 medical students and 252 medical auxiliaries and will feature educational programming run by U of T’s faculty of medicine, nursing and pharmacy. The building will also feature a clinical skill lab, 10 instructional labs, and teaching clinics for the public.
SAMIH was also made possible by the Government of Ontario’s efforts to address the province’s shortage of doctors and other medical professionals by expanding its medical school system.
Developing UTSC’s medical program is expected to not only produce more medical professionals but also to retain and attract such individuals to the Scarborough region, which has the second-lowest number of family physicians per capita in Ontario in 2023.
Both the NSB and SAMIH are results of U of T’s Defy Gravity campaign, which seeks to engage 225,000 of the institution’s alumni to raise C$4 billion—a record Canadian fundraising goal to improve its research capabilities, bolster its commitment to inclusivity and sustainability, and respond to the most pressing issues of today.
The progress of the NSB and SAMIH speaks to the success and effectiveness of the campaign and points to the expectation of future successes in establishing U of T as an academic powerhouse on the global level.
