The Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children will enable clinicians and researchers to work side-by-side in advancing the understanding of rare diseases, identifying new and better treatments and manufacturing innovative medical devices.

The Centre is being developed as a partnership between Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), University College London (UCL) and the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

It has been made possible thanks to a transformational £60 million gift made in July 2014 by Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the wife of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as well as Chairwoman of the UAE General Women’s Union, Supreme Chairwoman of the UAE Family Development Foundation and President of the UAE Supreme Council of Motherhood and Childhood. 

Situated adjacent to the hospital, the new building will incorporate an outpatient department hosting clinics for children and young people with a range of rare and complex conditions. It will also house a variety of laboratories, specialist equipment rooms and workspaces where hundreds of experts will develop diagnostic procedures, manufacture gene and cell therapies and create personalised medical devices. 

Central to the project is the desire to promote “bench to bedside” translational research by encouraging interaction between research staff and patients within a single building, and giving public expression to the important work being carried out. At street level the building is animated by views directly into the principal research laboratories on the lower ground floor. Research staff and patients share a single entrance which passes above these laboratories. Internally, extensive glazing creates strong visual connections between research and outpatient areas.

The building sits opposite Coram’s Fields, a space which has been dedicated for over 250 years to the wellbeing of children. A carefully articulated network of vertical terracotta fins gives a strong visual identity to the facades opposite Coram’s Fields, reflecting the public significance of the building and the unique relationship of its function with its context.

Construction of the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children commenced in 2016 and the building will open in 2018.