IU School of Medicine opens $230 million education, research building amid NIH cuts
As medical schools around the country face potentially drastic cuts in federal funding for research, the IU School of Medicine unveiled a $230 million new Medical Education and Research Building on June 27.
The 11-story building, which will officially open to IU medical students Aug. 4, houses new classrooms, an anatomy lab, a surgical skills center, dedicated community spaces and an eight-story research tower. Construction for the project began in late 2022, and is part of the new Indy Health District. IU Health funded $145 million of the project.
In recent months President Donald Trump's plan to trim $18 billion of the National Institutes of Health's budget next year have left several research universities unsure of their futures. The IU School of Medicine, which touts itself as the largest medical school in the U.S., was granted more than $248 million by the NIH for research in 2024.
Thursday IUSM Dean Jay Hess said that while the potential for funding cuts worries him, he remains confident in the value of the medical school's research. In addition to medical breakthroughs, IU estimates it created $635 million of economic activity and more than 2,400 jobs in Indiana last year thanks to its NIH-funded research.
'I think everyone in academic medicine right now is really, really concerned,' Hess said. 'I think that we're really trying to focus on, you know, 'What is the output of the research that we do?' And I have seen firsthand as a dean, clinical trials and medical research is actually — people are alive who would have died.'
Hess said the lab space in the building, located on 14th Street west of Senate Avenue, will likely be dedicated to neuroscience research. The facility could continue work by the Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, which has been awarded more than $50 million in NIH funding, as well as research on Parkinson's disease or brain cancers.
The facility will also incorporate new medical technologies into the classrooms, replacing many classrooms located in the former medical education building constructed in 1958. The new building includes spaces for students to learn how to practice telemedicine, work in settings that mirror operating rooms, perform ultrasounds on simulated patients and more.
Students and staff said the new space would promote peer relationships for medical students, with designated spaces for the medical school's 12 'Professional Learning Communities.'
Those learning communities help students support one another in the challenging environment of medical school, said Myke Spencer, a fourth-year medical student.
'I think the learning communities can be like small pods for students to be in smaller groups to collaborate and learn and feel kind of like a family,' Spencer said.
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