New Global Headquarters
Building on Success – Ivy Brain Tumor Center’s New Global Headquarters
The Ivy Brain Tumor Center is well underway on the construction of its new headquarters, the world’s largest translational research center dedicated solely to brain tumor drug development and treatment.
The new building, located on the Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center campus in Phoenix, Arizona, will be home to the Ivy Center’s scientists, investigators, clinicians and operational staff. In addition to laboratory space, the new building will house 14,000 square feet for trials infrastructure and 7,000 square feet for multidisciplinary clinical consultation, an MRI-guided ultrasound suite and a video teleconference auditorium.
Since its inception in 2018, the Ivy Brain Tumor Center has become a disruptive force in the brain tumor industry, screening and treating more than 2,500 patients, collaborating with more than 25 biopharma companies, and opening 13 new clinical trials.
The Ivy Center’s Phase 0 clinical trials program is fulfilling a long-awaited, unmet need for this patient population. This innovative approach to early-phase trialing addresses scientific and economic obstacles to brain tumor drug development. Through a precision medicine approach matching patients to new drug cocktails, tumor responses are assessed in a fraction of the time and cost typically associated with conventional clinical trials.
“The progress achieved by the Ivy Center’s Phase 0 clinical trials program has surpassed anything I have seen in the 16 years I have been funding brain cancer research. The new building in Phoenix will serve to leverage this success, so the Center can move even faster to discover and develop a new FDA-approved therapy for brain cancer,” says Catherine Ivy, president and founder of the Ben & Catherine Ivy Foundation.
By The Numbers
75,000 square feet: Size of the building
5: Number of floors
30,000 square feet: Size of the wet laboratory space
50: Full-time scientists, investigators, and operational staff the building will house
1,800 square feet: Size of the welcoming, two-story entrance lobby
2024: Year the building is expected to open
Construction Progress
We are proud that the Ivy Brain Tumor Center has broken ground on a new global headquarters for brain cancer research here in Phoenix, Arizona. The building that is being erected now will be the largest dedicated space for brain cancer research worldwide, and it will be dedicated to the singular goal of finding therapies that work for this patient population.
Nader Sanai, MD
Director of the Ivy Brain Tumor Center
A Glimpse of the Horizon
Test More Drugs
Currently, our growth is limited by the space in which we have to work. The new headquarters will amplify our wet lab space from 6,400 square feet up to 30,000 square feet. This enables us to engage more new drugs, open more new clinical trials, and initiate more new partnerships, advancing our mission to discover and develop a new FDA-approved therapy for brain cancer.
Increase Patient Diversity
When the Ivy Brain Tumor Center opened in 2018, we made a promise to the brain tumor community that as we grew, every patient, regardless of diagnosis or stage of the brain tumor, would have the option to enroll in a Phase 0 clinical trial. Activating more studies simultaneously will enable us to turn fewer patients away and assess more drugs per year.
Enhance Patient Experience
Currently, the Ivy Center is divided into three separate buildings on the Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center campus. This requires clinical trial patients to walk nearly a mile throughout the hospital campus during their visits. The new building will bring the program under one roof, providing a grand entry to the Ivy Center and enhancing the patient experience. It will also allow us space to provide additional patient and family support services.
Speed and Efficiency
An integrated home for the program will not only streamline the patient experience but will improve operational efficiency and communication among our multidisciplinary team, allowing us to plan, promote, start, finish and analyze new studies with greater speed and precision.
Ivy Center Beam Signing
The Ivy Center team gathered to sign the final beam of the new global headquarters. This commemorative ceremony marks the completion of the building’s structure. The steel beam holds more than 200 signatures of team members, donors and members of the brain tumor community. Expected to open in 2024, this building will be the largest dedicated space for brain cancer research worldwide. The signatures and well wishes will forever be within the walls of the Ivy Center headquarters.
Go Ivy! One small beam for a building. One giant leap for Barrow!
Michael lawton, MDPresident and CEO of Barrow Neurologial Insititute, signed,
Construction Timelapse
