A newly equipped wet lab facility in downtown Winston-Salem has opened for business, supported by a North Carolina Biotechnology Center grant of more than $70,000.
The Wake Forest University Babcock Demon Incubator Wet Lab, in the Piedmont Triad Research Park, offers low-cost, multi-user wet lab space and support for as many as six new biotechnology and bioscience companies annually.
The Regional Development Grant from the Biotechnology Center allowed for enhancing an existing wet lab at the site with core lab equipment, including microscopes, cell and tissue-culture equipment, polymerase chain reaction and electrophoresis equipment, and freezers, all to be shared by multiple users.
The project cost $105,955. The Babcock Demon Incubator provided $35,739, matching half the $70,578 from the Biotechnology Center.
"We are now open for business for inception stage companies," said Tom Clarkson, director of the incubator, "with a facility designed specifically for biotechnology and bioscience ventures that is fully equipped with anything a young company might need to develop business plans, validate scientific research, complete proof-of-concept or test a final product offering."
"Incubators like BDI are essential to developing entrepreneurs," said Gwyn Riddick, director of the Biotechnology Center's Piedmont Triad Office, "to help them commercialize innovation from the lab to the marketplace. Having a full-service asset for business development is another piece of our biotechnology landscape for high-tech job creation."