Research Facilities

Our facilities, our extraordinary researchers
The University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) campus routinely finds itself in the top five of surveys about the “most beautiful medical schools” in America. JABSOM’s $150 million JABSOM complex is located on a 9.9 acre site at the center of the Kakaʻako Waterfront.

Our learning and research complex is recognized by the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC) for its energy efficient design, which includes a unique Cold Seawater Cooling System which pulls frigid seawater from the ocean to assist in our air conditioning system, then returns the water to the sea. The JABSOM complex is the first to incorporate energy efficiency and innovations in both its laboratories and offices by adopting the USGBCʻs Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System.

The Medical Education Building (MEB) of 114,546 square feet, features modern classrooms, a clinical skills center, a grid access-3D room, a human patient simulator facility, and a 150-seat auditorium. The MEB houses the Dean and his administrative support, staff, the Grants Development Office, the Fiscal Office and the Satellite Office of Research Services.

Research is centered in the 184,142 square foot Biosciences Building (BSB), which features state-of-the-art wet laboratories and gross anatomy facilities. The BSB houses a research animal facility, and a 2,000 square foot Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) research laboratory. Shared research core facilities are available for Molecular and Cellular Immunology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Microarray Analysis, Molecular Pathology, Histopathology and Microscopy, Biocontainment, Pathogen Reference and Reagents, and Histology and Imaging.

The BSB consists of laboratories, laboratory-support functions, offices and conference areas for researchers, and a vivarium and BSL-2 insectary for small laboratory animals and insects.

The laboratories are located within a fully equipped 3,000 square foot open design BSL-2 suite. The facility provides full access to all equipment required to conduct molecular biology, cell culture, protein purification experiments and run immunological assays.

Additional research facilities located at other sites include the Institute for Biogenesis Research, the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center, the Pacific Biosciences Research Center, and affiliated hospitals throughout the State of Hawaiʻi.

Upper echelon in research
Our Pacific island location has encouraged a research focus in Native Hawaiian health and medicine, cross-cultural psychiatry, complementary and alternative medicine, and the communicable and infectious diseases of Asia and the Pacific.

Our research efforts are targeted toward eliminating the health disparities which burden segments of our multicultural population. We want answers that can rapidly be transferred to medical settings to improve patient care. JABSOM is also known for leadership in reproductive and developmental biology, including mammalian cloning.

Annually, JABSOM secures about $42 million in external funding, most of it for research, from the National Institutes of Health. Benefiting from its move to the Kaka`ako campus, JABSOM research has moved up 29 spots in securing federal National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds, to rank 82 out of 138 U.S. medical schools.

• In FY 2012, our faculty ranked in the Top 20 in the U.S. in terms of funding secured per capita full-time faculty member. It is the only public medical school with no university hospital in this upper echelon.
• For 2012-2014, JABSOM has ranked #1 in NIH research awards among community-based public medical schools (i.e., public medical schools without a university hospital).

Vivarium
Built in 2005, the Vivarium care facilities at Kakaʻako is 17,834 square feet. The current average daily cage census at the vivarium is 3,417 cages, providing room for up to 30,000 mice. The vivarium has two rooms for Animal Biosafety Level 3 activities, and a sound isolation room for neurobehavioral and electrophysiological animal testing. The vivarium is operated by Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS), formerly known as Laboratory Animal Service, under the direction of Dr. Sylvia Kondo, DVM, who also serves as the Attending Veterinarian (AV) for the system-wide program.

The AVS employs 14 animal care staff, a staff veterinarian, and two veterinary technicians who provide daily care. Two fiscal staff and three students also support the AVS business office. AVS complies with the Guide, the Animal Welfare Regulations, and other Federal, State and logical regulations in providing daily care for its animals in the vivarium.

Health Sciences Library
The Health Sciences Library serves as an information resource not only for the John A. Burns School of Medicine, but also for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus, the UH system, and the State. Emphasis is on Web-accessible materials, and the collections include a wide variety of print and electronic resources, primarily in the clinical sciences. Services available to both students and the public include computer workstations, individual study carrels in stack area, and library reference assistance.