A new academic laboratory in the Las Vegas medical district will also serve as a biosafety level three lab, allowing researchers to study lethal, highly infectious diseases. The 44-million-dollar facility was unveiled on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
The new academic laboratory is being built by the Nevada Health & Bioscience Corporation, which is the same nonprofit that developed UNLV’s Kirk Kerkorian Medical Education building in 2022.
The two-story lab will sit adjacent to that building, on over 34,000 square feet of land.
It will be home to a blood donation center, as well as labs for microbiology, stem cell processing, and drug toxicology.
Dr. Barbara Atkinson, Nevada Health & Bioscience's medical consultant, says this new facility will also serve as an academic training center for medical residents studying laboratory medicine, hematology, and blood banking.
“Those don't exist right now," said Atkinson. "None of those, they have to go all out of state to get those specialties, and they're always hard to get back once they go out of state.”
Construction on the lab is expected to begin on November first, and it will open to the public in early 2027.
