Phoenix’s downtown bioscience core welcomed a new member on Friday, as the National Institutes of Health unveiled a new clinical research unit dedicated to the study of diabetes and other diseases.
Why it matters: In its new 35,000-square-foot facility, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) will work to advance our understanding of such conditions while also bringing more intellectual firepower to downtown Phoenix.
Catch up quick: Since 1965, NIDDK has worked with local communities in Phoenix — particularly the Gila River Indian Community — to conduct research on diabetes and other ailments.
- The branch’s previous home at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center “isn’t in very good shape,” acting branch chief Leslie Baier tells Axios, so NIDDK started looking for a new home a few years ago.
Context: That home wound up being the seventh floor of the city’s bioscience building at 850 N. Fifth St. in downtown Phoenix. The area has become a biomedical hub over the last two decades…