In May of 1998 a group of Stanford faculty, led by James Spudich, organized a grass roots effort to initiate a bold enterprise, known informally as Bio-X, to facilitate interdisciplinary research and teaching in the areas of bioengineering, biomedicine and biosciences.

The program operates across the Schools of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Earth Sciences and the School of Law. In September of 1998 Provost Rice and Vice Provost Kruger created a Planning Committee consisting of faculty from the three Schools. This group developed the Bio-X Program and the concepts of a radical new building, now called The James H. Clark Center.