With applicants for incubator lab space spiking to all-time highs in the past month, timing couldn’t be better for the opening of the new MBC BioLabs facility San Carlos, CA. Nineteen life science entrepreneurs are expected to snap up “rent a bench” space in the first few weeks, with the number increasing to 50 companies in a very short period of time.

“COVID-19 research is driving some of this activity, but interest in life science innovation and discovery reaches far beyond that,” said Douglas Crawford, general manager of MBC BioLabs.

Built specifically as life-science incubator space over the past 18 months, the new facility brings cutting-edge lab equipment, infrastructure and services to innovators and entrepreneurs so they can begin their discovery work week one, not year one. This is the third such lab operated by MBC BioLabs and its second in San Carlos. Its first lab opened in San Francisco in 2013. Our co-working incubator concept is proving to be critically important in speeding discovery and empowering entrepreneurial scientists to be fast, frugal and focused.

“In the first 6 years the companies in our labs have brought 53 programs to the clinic, produced 13 approved diagnostics, and raised over $4.5 billion – this is just the sort of innovation we need to meet today’s critical healthcare needs,” Crawford said.

MBC BioLabs in San Francisco and San Carlos have helped launch and grow more than 170 companies in its incubators since 2013. With this third facility online, MBC BioLabs will be home of up to 125 companies leveraging nearly 80,000 square feet of lab incubator space in total.

“MBC BioLabs are entrepreneur-centric,” Crawford said. “We take care of the routine lab supplies, EH&S, maintenance, upkeep and logistics, so entrepreneurs can obsess over the science and nothing else.”

Long-standing corporate partners of MBC BioLabs will also be involved in the new San Carlos facility. MBC BioLabs oftentimes facilitates business relationships between the entrepreneurs in their labs and its corporate partners such as, Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s JLabs, Nitto Denko, AbbVie, Celgene, Amgen, and Astellas. Access to these leading companies provide entrepreneurs valuable insights about where to focus their efforts and speeds the pipeline of innovation for the corporate partners.