The Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC)

The Australian National Phenome Centre is the only facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Designed by Hames Sharley, it brings together all five Western Australian universities alongside leading health and medical research institutes, and connects to the International Phenome Centre Network. Its applications also reach into agriculture and environmental science.

Researchers at the centre analyse the molecular, physical and biochemical characteristics of biological tissue and fluids such as blood and urine, with the aim of predicting the complex genetic, environmental and lifestyle interactions that cause disease. The work supported here spans almost every area of bioscience, cutting across traditional research silos to encourage a more collaborative way of working.

Over the longer term the centre aims to build global atlases of human disease, offering insight into future health risks that people everywhere can benefit from. The laboratory design developed by Hames Sharley improves conditions for phenome researchers and positions Perth and Western Australia as a global leader in precision medicine, supporting advances in how disease is predicted, diagnosed and treated.

Architect: Hames Sharley. Photography: James Edwards.