English: Looking west obliquely at Cooley Laboratory on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. The new sunscreens protecting the building can be see along the right-hand side.

Originally known as the the Medical Science Research Building, the structure was designed in 1953 by Sigvald Berg. The National Institutes of Health paid for its construction, and it was the first building on the MSU campus to receive NIH funding. The five-story, 30,000 square-foot building opened in 1960. It had no central air, no vacuum capability, no self-contained water supply, a single small elevator, and just two restrooms. Built on a slight hill, it had a walk-out basement (e.g., the downslope side permitted someone in the basement to walk out a door onto level land).

Some time between 1977 and 1980, the structure was renamed Cooley Laboratory in honor of Robert A. Cooley, the former head of the Department of Zoology and Entomology whose work helped identify and treat Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

By 2011, almost no renovations or changes had been made to Cooley Lab. The building had $7 million in deferred maintenance needs, and in the summer interior temperatures often exceeded 100 degrees F -- which caused incubators to stop functioning. Because of inadequate electrical supply, equipment was often placed in hallways, and the Bozeman Fire Department cited the building year after year for fire code violations because the hallways were filled with stuff.

In 2005, MSU received a $2.5 million NIH grant to renovate the top two floors of Cooley Lab. A plan was put in place to upgrade the entire building's electrical, HVAC, and plumbing, but inflation quickly made the project too costly for the funds available.

In 2009, MSU submitted a request for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Obama stimulus) funds. It won a $14.9 million ARRA grant from the National Institutes of Health. Another $1.2 million came from the Montana State Board of Investments InterCap in the form of a loan, $732,000 came from NIH to pay for lab equipment, and $71,000 came from MSU research grants. Architects Design Group of Kalispell, Montana, designed the renovation, which was consturcted by Dick Anderson Construction of Helena, Montana.

A whole new floor was built on top of Cooley Laboratory, and with other internal changes the interior useable space increased by 50 percent to 45,000 square feet. The entire building was completely gutted. Major renovations include seismic upgrades, steel reinforcement of the interior structure, a new elevator (which required digging into the ground to place the elevator equipment), new electrical systems, a new mechnical floor in the attic, a self-contained HVAC system (that not only allows for vaccum but also prevents recirculation of air and can filter air through biosecurity filters), a centralized glass-washing and sterilization/decontamination center, cold rooms, ADA accessibility, new restrooms, wi-fi and hard line data connections throughout the building, energy-efficient doors and windows, and extensive new laboratory space and equipment (including modern fume hoods, fully equipped lab counters, modular benches, and so on). A new fish atrium was added to the basement, as was elevator access.

The roof also now features a solar heating panel, and sun-shades on the building's exterior help keep it cool. The building is LEED Gold certified.

as of 2013, Cooley Lab houses the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience. However, the majority of labs in the building are microbiology labs. Cooley Lab is connected to the Animal Resource Center and Lewis Hall.