In 1963 Dr. Andy Holt, Dr. Alexander Hollaender, and Dr. R. C. “Clint” Fuller from the University of Massachusetts Amherst began making plans for the creation of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences that would link the academic resources of UT to the research labs of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hollaender was able to secure much of the needed funding from the Atomic Energy Commission. On July 31, 1997, UT announced the formation of Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, and in 1998 the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was folded into it. JIBS represented a broader effort to facilitate research and development housed within the Life Sciences Division of ORNL.
The Graduate School of Genome Science and Technology, offered by UT and ORNL, is also a part of the JIBS. This unique, multidisciplinary program is designed for full-time graduate study leading to the MS or PhD in genome science and technology. In 2006 UT Executive Vice President David Millhorn announced that Dr. Gary Saylor would become the inaugural director of the UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, and that JIBS represented a commitment between the UT system and ORNL labs to collaborate on fundamental issues, such as bioenergy and the environment.
The institute is housed in a State of Tennessee (Tennessee-funded through UT) $8 million 35,000-square-foot structure at ORNL, which opened in January 2008 with 18 laboratories equipped for high-throughput genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic research. The building also contains 35 offices and conference rooms.