$8M awarded to Southern Research to build national lab

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Southern Research an $8 million grant to build a new groundbreaking lab at its new research center located in Southside Birmingham.

According to Southern Research, the lab will be a national shared-use biomedical research facility focused on investigating, developing and adopting new research methods. 

So what will this lab actually do? Here’s the short version:

• Accelerate the development of life-saving medicines by helping researchers identify better treatment strategies
• Move promising therapies into clinical testing and onto the market sooner
• Make more informed decisions about which approaches are most likely to succeed in patients
• Reduce reliance on animals in drug discovery and development

New lab is located at the new Southern Research medical center 

Southern Research’s new lab, which is called the Translational Hub for Research, Innovation, Validation, and Excellence (THRIVE), will be located within the new $98 million medical research center that opened in August 2025.

“This NIH award gives us the opportunity to build something much more than a new laboratory. THRIVE is designed to close the gap between innovation and application by bringing human-relevant models, advanced analytics, reference data, and scientific and regulatory expertise together in one environment.”

Harry Ledebur, PhD, chief operating officer at Southern Research

According to Southern Research, as a national shared-use resource, THRIVE will give NIH investigators and U.S. government researchers, alongside biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, access to Southern Research’s models, data, and expertise.