KU Clinical Research Center celebrates decade of investigational science
Ethan Hayes
Published Apr 08, 2026
Ten years ago, on Jan. 23, 2012, the brand-new University of Kansas Clinical Research Center opened its doors. The facility at 4350 Shawnee Mission Parkway in Fairway, Kansas, looked like a building in a suburban office park, not a place where science could change lives.
But looks can be deceiving. Just a week later, on Jan. 30, 2012, a group of VIPs strolled through the laboratories dedicated exclusively to clinical-trial testing. They were invited into the spacious rooms designed for clinical-trial participants to meet with researchers. In touring the 82,400-square-foot facility, the group saw where the University of Kansas Medical Center was going to tackle solutions to some of the world’s toughest health concerns.
About the KU CRC
The KU Clinical Research Center (KU CRC) is approximately 3 miles southwest of the KU Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kansas. Within its walls, researchers conduct a variety of clinical trials.
Three different entities within KU Medical Center have space in the facility:
Hope Krebill, executive director of the Masonic Cancer Alliance, said the KU CRC has been an excellent hub from which patient research advocates, hospitals, providers and researchers throughout Kansas and western Missouri are connected to the work of the KU Cancer Center. “The MCA is focused on fostering collaboration in cancer research, education and survivorship. To have our offices in the same building as ongoing clinical trials enhances that collaboration.”
Tara Lin, M.D., medical director of the KU Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office, said cancer center researchers have enrolled more than 700 clinical trial participants for Phase 1 cancer studies during the most recent five years of the research center — a threefold increase over enrollment in the first five years. “That’s a tremendous impact for our patients across Kansas and Missouri and beyond,” Lin said.
Jeffrey Burns, M.D, co-director of the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (KU ADRC), said moving into the KU CRC 10 years ago was “transformative.” “The CRC gave us space to really create and grow these young programs. And now we have this incredibly unique set of programs that work together to provide scientists with amazing tools,” he said.
Why it’s in Johnson County
Located in northeastern Johnson County, the KU CRC is supported in part by a 1/8-cent sales tax on purchases within Johnson County. In 2008, voters in the county passed an initiative that created the Johnson County Education Research Triangle (JCERT) as an investment into higher education and economic growth within the county.
The ongoing tax now generates more than $20 million a year, and that money is split evenly between the three sides of the “triangle” referred to in JCERT’s name. They are:
- The KU CRC, supporting medical research,
- The International Food and Animal Health Institute at Kansas State University’s Olathe campus, as well as support for several of its bioscience programs, and
- The Business, Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) Building on the Edwards campus of the University of Kansas in Overland Park. The $25 million building opened just two months after the KU CRC.
The JCERT initiative dovetailed with the cancer center’s bid to earn a designation from the National Cancer Institute. Roy Jensen, M.D., vice chancellor and director of KU Cancer Center, said he knew that a first-class cancer research facility was needed to achieve the coveted NCI designation. To that end, he spoke at countless business meetings and civic events to build voter support for JCERT. KU Cancer Center received that NCI designation the same year the KU CRC opened – 2012 – and earned a renewal in 2017. It is one of 71 NCI-designated cancer centers in the U.S.
“When I talk about JCERT to other cancer center directors across the country, they're absolutely dumbfounded that one, we even had this idea, two, that it's wildly successful,” Jensen said in a recent Bench to Bedside episode that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the historic vote.
“We have the capacity to have absolutely one of the best clinical research programs in the country,” Jensen said. “It's solely attributable to the fact that we have JCERT, that it's predictable, sustainable funding, and we can really think about the future of our clinical research program and plan accordingly.”
Mary Birch, chair of the KU Cancer Center Funding Partners Board and one of the originators of the JCERT initiative, said in the same episode that funds from JCERT are ahead of expectations. Each “point” of the JCERT triangle started receiving $5 million and are now getting closer to $7 million a year because of increases in the collected tax. “Johnson County’s thinking was bold and dreaming and visionary,” Birch said.
