Why move?

The story behind the downtown move of the medical school began with then-President John B. Simpson, his successor President Satish K. Tripathi and Michael Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  

What they saw in Buffalo was an opportunity to create a strong academic health center to improve the health of the community and boost the local economy. 

In 2011, Governor Cuomo signed into law NYSUNY 2020 and UB’s new medical school building became the first project to receive NYSUNY Challenge Grant funding.

The new building will allow the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to:

  • Expand. Expansion of medical schools is a national and regional necessity today. Physician shortages in our region range from moderate to quite severe in some specialties, including primary care. With the opening of the new building, we are increasing our class size 25 percent, from 144 to 180, in line with recommendations by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The increase will translate to more doctors serving our region.
  • Modernize. The new medical school houses modular state-of-the-art learning environments, embodying an innovative teaching environment.  Updated classrooms and laboratories will allow faculty and students to achieve the world-class education and research they aspire to, and foster the cross-disciplinary synergies that are so critical to medicine today.
  • Help improve patient care. One out of four UB medical school graduates stays and practices in Western New York. Therefore, enrollment growth in UB’s medical school will increase the number of physicians in the region, bringing much-needed clinical services and offering innovative treatments for patients.  
  • Recruit new faculty. The new building’s 21st-century facilities are helping UB recruit more than 100 talented physician-scientists and medical specialists to Western New York. UB faculty will pioneer new medical treatments and technologies and help advance medical care worldwide.
  • Strengthen the region’s academic health center. Across the country, academic health centers combine superior medical education, clinical care and research to provide premium care to patients in the nation’s largest cities. Buffalo’s academic health center will leverage the resources of UB’s medical school and its partners, including Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute —to provide world-class care and educate the next generation of physicians.  
  • Help strengthen the local economy. A new medical school populated by talented physicians and medical students will bring 2,000 more people to downtown Buffalo each day. New research and treatments generated by UB medical faculty will help transform Buffalo into a major health care destination. Moving the medical school downtown will also strengthen the biomedical sector as a catalyst for the region’s economic transformation. New medical innovations are expected to spin off businesses and create jobs as the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus continues to grow. The move builds on UB’s many successful research investments in biomedicine downtown, including UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Clinical and Translational Research Center, Institute for Healthcare Informatics and Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics.