Princess Royal visits Imperial to open £120m biomed facility

Princess Anne, sister of King Charles III, visited Imperial this week to open a new MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) building on the College’s Hammersmith Campus. 

The £120m building will host the LMS’s biomedical facilities and house 400 scientists working on genetics, heart and metabolic diseases, and sex-based differences in disease.

It is located opposite the Hammersmith Hospital, and has been funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council with ‘significant investment’ from Imperial.

Spanning eight storeys and clad in anodised aluminium, the building will host microscopy, proteomics, imaging and bioinformatics research facilities.

A central staircase connects laboratories and open-plan office spaces to a top-floor café with an outdoor terrace.

“Today’s event builds upon a unique legacy, as The Princess Royal also opened the lab’s first building in 1995,” said MRC Executive Chair Patrick Chinnery, praising Her Royal Highness for “championing women in STEM.”