Since 2003, researchers at Stanford University’s Lorry I. Lokey Laboratory for Chemistry and Biological Sciences have sought to find answers to science’s biggest questions by focusing on the smallest of things: molecules, cells, and their chemical compounds. Chemical elements—much like a building’s concrete, steel, or timber—are the building blocks of everything around us. The Lorry I. Lokey Laboratory has united the brightest scientific minds studying these components, witnessing the advancement of knowledge and biochemical investigation for all.

The Lorry I. Lokey Laboratory was built to serve as the most research-intensive structure on the world-renowned Stanford University campus—and it certainly has held up to that vision. Home to research for the Chemistry and Biological Sciences departments, the $42-million, 85,000-square-foot building features state-of-the-art modular laboratories for nine principal investigators as well as 180 students and postdoctoral fellows. Their work in molecular and cell biology and advanced organic synthesis chemistry spans nearly two decades within the laboratory’s walls. Despite much of their research existing on a microscopic level, the scope of their findings is global.

One example is the Wender Group housed on Lokey’s second floor. Studying the intersection of chemistry, biology, medicine, and materials science, the group’s work emphasizes the use of synthesis “to address problems of significance in biology and medicine including eradication of HIV/AIDS, overcoming resistant cancer, and treating cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease (source).” The researchers also focus on the development of new strategies to treat disease as well as new therapeutic strategies to address unsolved medical problems.

Another group is the Burns Lab which explores the “boundaries of modern organic synthesis to enable the more rapid creation of the highest molecular complexity in a predictable and controllable fashion (source).” For the non-chemist, their research seeks to answer a variety of chemical, medicinal, biological, and biophysical questions that can translate to insights, discoveries, and more for human health and the fight against illness and disease.

Chemistry surrounds us: from what we eat and wear to even think and feel. Lokey’s brilliant chemists and biologists continue to research chemical reactions that will give us solutions, benefitting science, human health, and beyond. Degenkolb Engineers was proud to have worked on the design of the laboratory along with architect, DGA.