UCL world-class neuroscience centre building reaches highest point in construction

ISG’s Institute of Neurology project celebrated the highest point of the construction process this past week as part of a Topping out ceremony with client UCL.

The centre on Grays Inn Road, London, aims to accelerate the discovery of treatments for neurological conditions, including dementia – for which there is still no known cure. 

The prestigious research facility will serve as a hub for the UK Dementia Research Institute and a new home for the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, HQ (UK DRI) and the UCLH National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

The new centre will house up to 1000 scientists, clinicians and patients together and enable advances to translate from bench to bedside and back again. As well as seven floors of shared labs, workspaces, consulting rooms and collaboration spaces for scientists and support teams, the building will host an MRI suite with five scanners, a 220-seat lecture theatre and a range of shared core facilities, equipment and core technology platforms including microscopy, transcriptomics and tissue processing to encourage new ways of working, collaboration and knowledge-exchange. 

The sustainable design, by architects Hawkins\Brown also contains a variety of open and green spaces, including public access areas that the local community can access, as well as a café, open to the public. 

ISG Project Director, Francis Thurley said “It’s great for us to be celebrating the topping out of this vitally important project. This will prove to be a vital space scientists, researchers, and clinicians alike and a hub that will help to tackle tackle global challenges for neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and vascular dementia”

“I just want to say thank you to all the team and our partners for their hard work in getting to this important milestone in the build, and we now look forward to the rest of the project”

Professor Alan Thompson, Dean, Faculty of Brain Sciences said: “The new UCL building at 256 Grays Inn Road has been an ambitious project, long in the making and it is wonderful to see it finally coming to fruition.

“UCL is a global leader in pioneering research into neurological conditions that cause disabling and distressing symptoms such as immobility and dementia and it can be a challenge to link researchers with clinicians, patients, industry, and students. This new purpose-built centre of excellence will enable that collaboration between these key groups to take place and, as a consequence, new treatments to be developed, tested and made available to our patients.

“Our goal is to translate discoveries into treatments and have a real impact on patients with disabling neurological conditions – one of the great unmet needs of society."

Professor Michael Hanna, Director UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology said “I am delighted we have reached this significant “topping out” milestone on our 11-year journey to create what will be a world leading translational neuroscience research environment. I have been privileged to have been part of this journey from the very beginning and seeing how good the building looks already is very exciting.

“I am sure it will be an inspiring environment where patients, doctors and scientists come together to ultimately translate research into treatments. I am incredibly proud of all the teams who have worked so hard to get us to this stage and I am sure that what we are creating together will be transformational in finding therapies for devastating neurological diseases.”

This was first published on the UCL website and can be found here