The University of Leicester is consolidating its position as one of the U.K.’s academic centers for heart disease research by building a 2,200 sq m Cardiovascular Research Centre (CRC) at the city’s Glenfield Hospital, according to Pharma Times.

The center will cost approximately $20 million, and will double the research space available by adding a four-story extension to the hospital’s clinical sciences wing.

The wing already houses a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit, set up at the hospital in April 2009 as a partnership between the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

The new CRC will include a Biobank capable of storing samples from up to 100,000 individuals, a Clinical Research Informatics Unit and a Data to Knowledge Unit.

The site will capture, code and translate anonymous patient data for research, as well as provide an advanced information-technology link between the university and Glenfield Hospital.