University of California, San Francisco SOD Announces Location of New Home

In December 2025, the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry (UCSF SOD) announced an investment in its future by purchasing two life sciences buildings adjacent to its Mission Bay campus.

This new location will provide a modern hub for health professions education. The building at 409 Illinois Street will be transformed into a modern, 275,000-square-foot education center with high-tech simulation labs and state-of-the-art dental clinics. The neighboring building at 499 Illinois Street will be devoted to research.

"Our new home will provide the foundation to move into the future of dental education," said Michael Reddy, D.M.D., D.M.Sc., Dean of UCSF SOD. "We have outgrown our old facilities, clinically and educationally. The future requires not just more space, but more flexible space, to accommodate changes we anticipate and those we don't yet see coming."

Health care has advanced beyond the spaces where it developed over the past several decades. It is no longer compartmentalized by specific professions and does not require dedicated space that was reserved for analog technologies that have been replaced with digital workflows. Since retrofitting is both more expensive and insufficient for emerging educational models, an entirely new space is the most practical and economical solution to this problem.

The new location will also place UCSF SOD learners inside the continuum of patient care. A facility in proximity to a modern health care campus provides an opportunity to be part of an interprofessional health care team focused on whole-person care. The model that UCSF develops in the new facilities can help move dental education toward the more collaborative health care environment of the future.

Learners will continue to have excellent education in discipline-specific training and with new facilities and equipment they will move from immersive simulation directly to precision care. Providing the most current facilities and education will help learners be prepared for changes in methods and treatments as they emerge.

Renovations at the new location begin this year with a targeted completion in late 2029.

Courtesy of University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry