Pappajohn will be the buzz around campus this week once again.

The state Board of Regents voted Thursday to name the new Biomedical Discovery Building in honor of John and Mary Pappajohn after the couple’s record donation of $26.4 million.

The gift is the largest single donation by individual Iowa donors ever. It also brings the longtime benefactors’ total contributions up to $38.6 million.

The building is under construction on the UI Health-Sciences Campus across from Westlawn. It will now be called the John and Mary Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building and will house the Pappajohn Institute.

Regents and officials from the three regent universities received the proposal with a round of applause, and one regent called it “breathtaking.”

“The University of Iowa is deeply grateful to John and Mary Pappajohn,” UI President Sally Mason said in a press release. “Our relationship with the Pappajohns is based not only on their generosity, but also — and perhaps more importantly — on their vision.”

Mason said confirmation of the gift came in the past 48 hours.

The new building will include office space, laboratories designed for cross-disciplinary research, primarily focusing on neuroscience and diabetes.

The facilities also include an underground research laboratory in which animals will be housed.

Officials told the DI the new facility will prove to be more convenient for researchers and provide better security and care for the animals.

Security became a major concern after activists from the group Animal Liberation Front broke into the Spence Laboratories and Seashore Hall in November 2004, freeing animals and vandalizing the facility.

Additional funds for the project came from state and federal dollars as well as other private donors.

John Pappajohn said in a press release that he hoped the new facility would provide students with new opportunities and advance the contributions the UI makes to Iowa’s economic and scientific sectors.

“This institute at Iowa offers tremendous hope for significant advances in several crucial areas of biomedical research,” he said. “This world-class research enterprise will provide the state with promising economic development opportunities.”