Bright future for Bio, Tech and Beyond

By Christina Vincent Economic Development Manager City of Carlsbad In less than three years of operation, the city’s life sciences incubator, Bio, Tech and Beyond, has tripled the number of companies and people working at the lab, growing into a job generator and producing approximately $1 million in local spending activity. At the end of last year, Bio, Tech and Beyond’s roster listed 20 startups and the equivalent of 42 full-time employees, compared with six startups and 14 full-time employees at the end of 2013. The incubator, which has been called a “biotech garage,” today has scientists waiting for space at the 21-bench laboratory. When incubator founders Joseph Jackson and Kevin Lustig responded to the City of Carlsbad’s request for proposals to create a business incubator in a city-owned building, they wanted to create a home for scientists seeking a place for “do-it-yourself” science. These scientists may have been working on experiments in their homes or in borrowed labs, begging for access to equipment to test their ideas. Jackson and Lustig saw a need for a well-equipped lab at a reasonable price.

Since March 2013, the city has leased a 6,000-square-foot building at 2351 Faraday Ave. to Bio, Tech and Beyond, and in return the incubator provides low-cost lab space and equipment for startup life science firms. This initiative began years before that with a council goal to attract an incubator to Carlsbad that supports the high tech and life science industries. At Bio, Tech and Beyond, scientists can lease a dedicated 10-foot bench for roughly $1,000 a month, which includes a desk and access to resources such as liquid nitrogen and sophisticated laboratory equipment. This project was admittedly a big endeavor for both the city and the lab founders, but since Carlsbad is home to more than 150 life sciences firms, it seemed to be a great fit. By encouraging entrepreneurship, the city hoped to gain new companies and jobs, while these small firms created new drugs and therapies to treat disease. And today this partnership is paying off. Not only are these small firms creating new drugs and jobs, but Bio, Tech and Beyond’s 20 firms spent $1 million last year on supplies and services, boosting the local economy. “We’ve brought the barrier down for new firms trying to develop their ideas,” Jackson said. “We can help them get started, and we’ve had some successes.” Twelve companies that started in the incubator have moved on, with some of them establishing themselves in larger space in Carlsbad. One of those startups, Orphi Therapeutics, is researching a therapy that would treat a blood disorder, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which can cause strokes. Orphi Therapeutics’ scientists are researching a genetic form of the disease that affects the young. Some of Bio, Tech and Beyond’s scientists have attracted venture capital to help them grow. GPB Scientific, for example, has received $3.2 million for its cell-separation technology, which can be used to treat cancer patients. Another firm, Koliber Biosciences, specializes in synthetic biology, seeking ways to make it easier to manufacture chemicals, produce energy and cure disease. Koliber and its founder, Ewa Lis, won first place last year as “Best Startup” in the Blue Sky Bio Synthetic Biology competition. In October, the city and Bio, Tech and Beyond held a “Startup Showcase” where nine of the incubator’s firms demonstrated their ideas to the community and possible investors. Jackson averages a half dozen interviews a month with scientists looking for space. Jackson said Bio, Tech and Beyond’s goals for 2016 include providing more hands-on mentorship for incubator tenants and helping them secure financial backing needed to achieve the next level. “Wherever we visit, whether it’s regionally or Northern California, we’re always spreading the word about entrepreneurship and creating a small company,” he said. “We’re helping our companies get the word out.”