WORCESTER, Mass. — UMass Chan President Marty Meehan said goal of the new education and research building at UMass Chan Medical School is to provide better training and support for the students on campus.

The 350,000-square-foot building will hold to more than 70 principal investigators, focused on gene therapy, neurosciences and molecular medicine.

"It'll result in the medical school increasing its research portfolio and the university as a whole," said Meehan. "As a university we do 830 million worth of research now, which puts us just behind Harvard and MIT in Massachusetts which will help us solve some of the worlds biggest problems."

UMass Chan said the building was a $350 million project.

Meehan said new the research facility will also create opportunities to recruit highly advanced medical professionals who can help mentor the new generation of experts in the field.

"It's going to allow us to attract more outstanding faculty members from around the world," said Meehan. "We were able to compete to get the best investigators, the best faculty members that we can, and that in turn results in students getting wonderful interaction with the best faculty of any medical school in the world."

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was also present at the event Friday. 

Dr. Tedros said he hopes the new research facility will also serve towards creating more solutions for diseases around the world.

"Vaccines do not administer themselves," said Dr. Tedros. "Cesarean sections do not perform themselves. Health care, compassion, a newborn, do not deliver themselves. They all require a person and not just any person. They require health or care worker."