Rebecca Kaufman surveys the bio-incubator scene throughout the Southeast in this series. Today: Alabama
Part One, with the introduction, covers Flordia: http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=5054
Part Two: Georgia
http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=5060
Part Three: The Carolinas
http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=5070
Part Four: Tennessee
http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=5082
ALABAMA
In 1983, the University of Alabama established the Office for the Advancement of Developing Industries (OADI) to create a base for new and developing industries in the Birmingham area.
Originally located on the UAB campus, the incubator later moved to the UAB Research Park at Oxmoor, where the 67,000-square-foot facility now provides office suites and wet laboratory space (approximately 20,000 square feet) along with shared resources such as conference rooms, an on-site library, and office equipment.
A wide range of professional services are also available, including strategic planning, market strategy, networking, mentoring and seminars.
To date, the incubator has graduated more than 50 companies and currently has 19 tenants. The incubator is mixed-use, with tenants focused in biotechnology, robotics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace design, and computer hardware and software development.
Roughly half of the graduates are considered life sciences companies.
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASD: BCRX) is among the incubator’s most well-known graduates. Additional incubator and wet lab space will become available when UAB completes renovation of a 140,000 square foot building that will offer much needed wet lab space.
The newly established HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (HAIB), an independent, non-profit research organization funded by private and public funds, serves as the cornerstone of the 120-acre Cumming Research Park Biotech Campus in Huntsville and includes more than 270,000 square-feet of laboratory, office and common areas.
Hudson-Alpha is now home to twelve for-profit companies, including Antarus Biotech, Applied Genomics, Inc., CFD Research Corporation, Conversant Healthcare Systems, Expression Genetics, Inc., ExtremoZyme, Inc., Microarrays, Inc., New Century Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Open Biosystems, Inc., Serina Therapeutics, SourceCF and Theragnostix Reference Laboratories.
Additional for-profit space is expected to become available in 2008. BizTech, a 15,000 square food mixed-use incubator, is also located in Huntsville, and offers business and management advice to both resident and non-resident client companies, with biosciences companies including IntelCell, MI Research, Inc. and Pi Proteomics LLC.
Martin Tilson, Managing Partner of Burr & Forman’s Atlanta office, spent several years of his early career helping to develop the UAB Incubator. That experience, he says, left him with a real appreciation of the value of incubators in the early days of an emerging life sciences company.
“In 1986, we had a new 36,000 sq ft wet lab building on the campus of UAB, but there were few comparative incubator business models.
A handful of us from across the country formed the National Incubator Association in order to have peer to peer information sharing. We mostly used West Coast models, fortunately getting good attention from the West Coast and Boston area VCs.
It was a creative period, and we learned the three critical elements for success were: adaptable wet lab space; easy access and communication for Venture investors; and the incubator location in close proximity to where University scientists had their own labs.”
Southeast Bio (SEBIO), a regional nonprofit organization that fosters the growth of the life sciences industry in the region, continues to track various economic development initiatives across the Southeast, including incubator development and growth as well as affiliated business counseling and angel funding initiatives.
“The growth of the bioeconomy depends in large part on the formation and funding of start up companies,” says Stephanie Adams, Executive Director of SEBIO.
“We provide various programs, such as our annual BIO/Plan competition and Investor Forum, which provide access to mentoring and early funding to complement the important work of the incubators in our region.”
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
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