LAND O’ LAKES — Moffitt’s sprawling Spero campus continues to grow.
Tucked on the Ridge Road extension in the Angeline community, Moffitt is set to open its immersive research wing, the Discovery and Innovation Center: a 250,000-square-foot cancer research facility on the 775-acre campus at 16480 Wilton Way.
The facility will feature state-of-art equipment and resources available for 20 faculty laboratories, 12 shared resource facilities and approximately 250 research personnel and scientists from multiple disciplines together that will collaborate to better understand cancer and accelerate new treatments.
“It is designed to be what it was meant to be as a facility and that is research that works for the science,” said Ed Seijo, senior director of Translational Science and Biorepository Shared Resources. “It is a complex operational transition of Moffitt’s research programs, but we’re excited to get our people working and set up to do valuable work. When it’s all said and done, they’ll be 20 labs up and running and there won’t be a question that can’t be answered just by walking over to a nearby lab.”
The center will include key research areas such as:
• Cancer biology: How cancer develops, grows, spreads and responds to treatment.
• Drug discovery and chemistry: Identifying cancer targets and developing potential therapies.
• Bioengineering: Creating technologies and tools to better study cancer.
• Cancer metabolism: Studying how cancer cells use nutrients and energy to uncover treatment targets.
Seijo added that the center was built to be within walking distance of the Speros 120,000-square-foot Outpatient Center and the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Proton Therapy Center, with its Proteus ONE system, powered by its 55-ton cyclotron, which made a 4,600-mile journey from Belgium and was funded in part by a $15 million gift.
“By bringing research closer to patient care and creating space for collaboration with education and industry partners, MDI advances Moffitt’s vision for Speros while helping strengthen Tampa Bay’s life sciences ecosystem,” Moffitt officials said.
Some of the MDI features were designed to support collaboration and adapt as science evolves, including flexible labs with movable benches and overhead utilities, shared technology and collaborative spaces across disciplines, advanced imaging, molecular and drug discovery capabilities and a Nikon Center of Excellence.
Plus there is a Research Machine Shop, where basically anything can be built with a variety of tools and 3-D printers. And, in the not-too-distant future, Seijo said, the MDI will bring clinical trials to the facility as part of research practices.
Moffitt opened its Outpatient Center to patients in late January, while the proton therapy center began seeing patients in late July.
Additionally, a new regional coalition, led by Moffitt, launched an initiative May 27 to transform Tampa Bay into one of the nation’s leading centers for radiopharmaceutical development, manufacturing and precision oncology. The Florida Oncology and Radiopharmaceutical Growth Engine, or FORGE, is expected to produce 4,000 high-wage jobs and generate $2.6 billion in economic impact for Florida over the next decade. The initiative will be anchored at Moffitt’s Speros campus and includes regional partners Embarc Collective, the University of South Florida and Pasco-Hernando State College.
More than $600 million of construction has been completed or is still taking place at Speros — Latin for “hope” — since it broke ground in 2023. The campus and its hat trick of facilities will create more than 11,000 new jobs by 2033, including 2,400 for Moffitt by the end of 2026.
