The Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System has further approved joint plans to create a state-of-the-art genomic diagnostic lab, marking a significant milestone in the development of the joint endeavor between UAB and Southern Research.

The joint endeavor will establish a new Alabama non-profit corporation, Venn Labs, via which the assets and operations of the above referenced labs will be integrated to streamline current services into one unified diagnostics lab. Venn Labs currently involves five labs operated by UAB Hospital and Health Services Foundation (“HSF”), namely HSF’s Biochemical Genetics, Cytogenetics, and Pediatric Virology labs and UAB Hospital’s Molecular Diagnostics and Molecular Genomics labs.

By combining the operations of these five participating labs into one facility, several objectives will be served: streamlining operations and creating efficiencies; enabling growth of participating labs through new facilities and investment; allowing participating labs to serve a broader community of regional providers; expanding testing menus to provide a competitive, local option for diagnostic testing; and accelerating research and innovation that occurs across the partner institutions.

Venn Labs will be located in a newly constructed building in Birmingham’s Southside on the 2200 block of University Avenue, and is scheduled to become operational in Summer 2024. In the interim, UAB and Southern Research will continue to work with participating labs to ensure continued smooth operation and high quality testing services.