New research hub will open doors to medical breakthroughs

UC Irvine researchers seeking cures to blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma have a new reason to celebrate. The highly anticipated Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building is expected to officially open its doors this spring, ushering in a new era of transformational vision research.

Designed specifically to foster “bench to bedside” research, the 215,000 square-foot facility will house some of the university’s most high-impact medical research labs, along with conference and meeting spaces to fuel collaboration and innovation.

The building’s entire top floor is dedicated to potentially groundbreaking vision research, housing the labs of 10 principal investigators from the UC Irvine School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology and space for four more faculty members slated to arrive this year.

Bringing together vision researchers now working in five different buildings will make it easier to share highly specialized equipment, exchange ideas, host meetings and train the next generation of researchers while pursuing novel treatments for devastating eye diseases that affect millions of people globally.

“We will see an intellectual, educational energy created by the proximity of top researchers to one another,” says Krzysztof Palczewski, PhD, the Irving H. Leopold Chair of Ophthalmology and Distinguished Professor. “Everybody working in one place will create a healthy competition and motivation as we learn from and elevate each other."

Palczewski, a world-renowned vision researcher, leads both the Center for Translational Vision Research and the Precision Genome Editing Program — two of 12 high-impact interdisciplinary programs powered by about 100 UC Irvine researchers moving into the building.

They include internationally recognized researcher Philip Felgner, PhD, a professor of physiology & biophysics and director of the UC Irvine Vaccine Research and Development Center and the Protein Microarray Laboratory and Training Facility. His lab provides nanoparticles that are helping eye institute scientists edit genes linked to blinding diseases.

Gene-editing therapies being developed at UC Irvine to treat vision loss have potential applications anywhere in the body for a vast array of diseases caused by genetic mutations.

“Our goal with gene editing is not only to discover the fundamentals of visual systems, but also the pathology of human diseases so we can ultimately develop other relevant gene therapies,” says Palczewski. “Genome editing is going to revolutionize medicine."

This new research home was made possible thanks to a generous $30-million lead gift from Professor Robert Mah and Dr. Adeline Yen Mah’s Falling Leaves Foundation. It is strategically located adjacent to the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute as well as other health sciences schools and research facilities. It is also just a mile from the new UCI Health — Irvine medical complex.

To celebrate the opening of the new facility, the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute and the Center for Translational Vision Research will host an academic symposium, “Breaking Barriers: Trailblazing Innovations in Medical Research.” The event on Sept. 19, 2025, will bring three Nobel laureates to campus to discuss their scientific breakthroughs.

“Over the next decade, we envision the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building as a hub for revolutionary discoveries and leading advances in medical science,” says Eric J. Vilain, MD, PhD, director of the UC Irvine Institute for Clinical and Translational Science and an associate vice chancellor at the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences."

“Ultimately, our overarching aim is to create a healthier future by fostering a collaborative research environment that brings exceptional innovations from the lab to patients around the world."