Yale announced the creation of a new Biodesign Institute on West Campus to be open in early 2012, according to a press release today.

The institute will integrate biology and engineering to explore how nanoscale living and material systems work and it will be housed in the B-24 building at West Campus.

James Rothman, chair of the cell biology department at the School of Medicine, was named the director and T. Kyle Vanderlick, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, will be the deputy director of the institute. Rothman is a leading neurobiology researcher who won the 2010 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. He helped to launch the Center for High Throughput Cell Biology also located on West Campus.

Up to 10 new researchers will head laboratories in the institute when it is established, and Rothman and Vanderlick also plan to recruit existing faculty members from various disciplines. A faculty advisory committee will also be appointed to help oversee the institute.

The Biodesign Institute will be one of five institutes on West Campus, including the Cancer Biology Institute announced last month.