The IGM’s facilities on the Health Sciences campus of the University of Southern California are as innovative as the research practiced there. Instead of small, narrowly-focused laboratories, the Institute’s multiple, open-space laboratories allow individual projects to blossom in an atmosphere that engender interdisciplinary collaboration and enhance the creative process.

The very nature of IGM’s mission is reflected in the laboratories’ design. There are no geographically assigned spaces in IGM. Instead the research spaces are large, open, integrated and interdisciplinary that ensure that all investigators, scientists, and staff members working with different faculty members work side-by-side.

Laboratory benches and spaces are maximally flexible and malleable as well. IGM invented a new kind of laboratory work module, one that can be raised or lowered or even dismantled without any expensive disruption of electrical, or gas, or plumbing lines.

Realizing that scientists often spend an unusual amount of time away from home, IGM emphasizes a “home-like” environment with comfortable conversation areas, kitchens and reading areas.