UI’s Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank will use a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to consolidate its various labs and offices into a lab twice as large on the north wing of the third floor of the Biology Building.

The bank produces hybrid cells, which can make unlimited amounts of a specific antibody or protein.

Doug Houston, the director of the hybridoma bank, said he anticipates construction to begin mid 2027. Houston said construction could last up to a year, meaning the bank’s staff could move in mid 2028.

The grant allows the team to repurpose the north wing of the Biology Building. Kerr said the bank will not tear down any walls or cause major construction disruptions to the building.

Kerr said the grant funds will provide more laboratory equipment and expanded cryostorage, or preserving cells in extremely low temperatures, for the hybridoma cells, with the production lab being twice as large as before.

Houston said the lab is close to having 650 antibodies, a number he said he hopes the bank can double as it moves into a lab two times larger than before and hires more staff.

“That’s going to hopefully mean we can produce twice as many,” he said. “It’s a hands-on kind of art form to grow these cells because they don’t grow that fast. Any one person doing this can only manage so many at a time.”

Houston said the new space will include modernized technology that will allow the lab to eventually shift from trial-and-error antibody production to recombinant production, which uses the antibody’s genetic sequence to reliably replicate it whenever more is needed.

“The hybridoma is a living cell line,” he said. “You have to keep it alive. Liquid nitrogen keeps it very cool. But it can divide and undergo mutations. So you’re always at risk with the hybridoma of losing the ability to produce the same antibody over multiple years.”

UI biology department chair Tina Tootle said the bank provides a low price point for purchasing antibodies at roughly one-tenth the value compared to commercial suppliers.

RELATED: UI’s Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing receives $1 million grant

Gemma Kerr, program coordinator of UI’s Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank, said commercial antibodies can cost $500 for 100 micrograms, while the bank provides antibodies in 1 milliliter of liquid containing antibodies for $50.

“You get a lot more bang for your buck,” Tootle said. “These funds are getting everyone that works towards the goals of the DSHB to be in the same space, which I think will provide a better working environment and synergy that will lead to new innovations.”

Tootle said the bank is a valuable resource for UI scientists and that she has taken hundreds of antibodies from the UI bank for her own research.

“It’s really important for the scientific community, and it’s important for the Department of Biology,” she said. “It’s going to have its own location, its own front door to say so that you can see this is the DSHB. It is more obvious that this great research resource is present on the Iowa campus.”

Kerr said she is excited that the bank’s different departments, such as the production lab and research and development lab, will be directly across the hall from one another, a change from the different departments of the bank being scattered around the building.

“One of the worst things could happen, especially for small organizations like this, is the siloing effect of everybody being often isolated in their own spot,” she said. “This grant will allow us to have a very physical presence and sense of community within our own organization.”

Kerr said the bank is especially grateful to the NIH given the funding cuts the organization experienced last year. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by June 2025, over 2,000 grants were awarded to U.S. institutions had been terminated, resulting in nearly $4 billion lost in funding.

“We know that we are extraordinarily lucky,” Kerr said. “It’s a privilege to have this kind of support and funding, both from them and from the NIH, especially given the more precarious nature of NIH funding in general. We know that it’s our responsibility to put it to very good use.”