IBB was built from the ground up to facilitate interdisciplinary research. There is no other research building quite like IBB. The entire IBB building is configured to facilitate the interdisciplinary research programs of its faculty and their research groups.Over the last decade, IBB has revolutionized the term "interdisciplinary research," and the Institute has become an incubator for research teams to tackle complex medical research problems using an interdisciplinary approach. It has grown to include more than 100 faculty members from a wide variety of disciplines, which has played a vital role in the success of the Institute and its culture.

From its eight "research neighborhoods" to the open atrium and even the building's artwork, IBB was built from the ground up to foster an environment where innovative research emerges from the joint activities of bioengineering and bioscience faculty from more than nine different departments. The concept behind the building is to provide an environment to integrate the research efforts of the bioengineers on campus with those of the bioscientists in a way that fosters synergistic collaborative research. IBB occupies a three-story building with a total size of nearly 150,000 gross square feet.

At first, IBB was the only building on campus dedicated to bio-related research, it now sits in the center of a wide variety of bio-related activities and is the heart of the bio-community by providing core facility resources and staff support to serve as a facilitator for various activities.