Charlotte Region life sciences: A year of momentum and a future full of promise
If 2025 had a theme for the Charlotte region's life sciences ecosystem, it was this: years of planning finally meeting their moment. From landmark facility openings to record-breaking workforce milestones, the Charlotte region didn't just grow — it announced itself to the world.
The Pearl: A new center of gravity
No development defined 2025 more than the opening of The Pearl innovation district, developed by Wexford Science+Technology. This transformative campus brought together several marquee institutions that are collectively reshaping what Charlotte means to the life sciences world.
Chief among them is the North American headquarters of IRCAD, the internationally renowned surgical training center, established in partnership with the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Charlotte. This is the only exclusive IRCAD installation in North America — a distinction that carries enormous weight in the global surgical community. By December 2025, IRCAD had already trained more than 1,000 surgeons, drawing practitioners from across the country and beyond directly to Charlotte.
Also calling The Pearl home are major health-tech industry players, including Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Stryker, and Siemens Healthineers, alongside Connect Labs at The Pearl — a hub designed to fuel innovation, entrepreneurship, and cross-sector collaboration. The result is a campus that functions as what NCBiotech's Charlotte Regional Director Corie Curtis describes as "a super magnet to attract businesses, surgeons, entrepreneurs, innovators, and researchers."
What made The Pearl's opening so striking wasn't just what was built — it was the reaction it generated beyond North Carolina's borders. "When you live it every day, the only way you could be surprised is to see others' reactions," Curtis noted. "The volume of people that reached out to us afterwards from all over — wanting to be connected, wanting to engage with the ecosystem — was quite remarkable."
A strong start for economic development
The Pearl wasn't the only story. 2025 opened with a string of company announcements that signaled growing confidence in the region. Monroe Biomedical Research announced an expansion. Medical Murray was acquired by Aptyx, a medical device R&D and contract manufacturer. DetraPel, Inc., a clean-tech advanced materials company, moved its headquarters from Massachusetts to Charlotte. And Groninger USA, a maker of fill-finish equipment, announced its own expansion. Together, these early-year wins set a high bar — and the region kept pace.
Underpinning all of it is Advocate Health — now the third largest nonprofit health system in the country, following its strategic combinations with Wake Forest Baptist Health and Aurora Health in the Midwest. Just recently, Advocate also announced the establishment of a National Center for Clinical Trials, a development that promises to bring even more research activity to the region.
Meanwhile, the Carolinas College of Health Sciences, housed alongside the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Charlotte within The Pearl’s Howard R. Levine Center for Education, doubled its enrollment — a direct response to the urgent nursing workforce shortage.
Building the talent pipeline
Growth at the company and institutional level only holds if the talent pipeline keeps pace. Here, too, 2025 delivered.
Lilly's Concord site now employs over 900 people, and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College has been a key partner in that ramp-up through its BioWork training program. Last year, the college launched a dedicated aseptic training suite within the biotechnology building at the NC Research Campus in Kannapolis.
South Piedmont Community College is building on this momentum — constructing a 21,000 square foot building dedicated to aseptic training, expected to come online in early 2027. And Central Piedmont Community College’s BioWork program launch is imminent. Across the region, multiple ambassador training programs ran throughout 2025, and NCBiotech continued promoting BioWork and short courses at Livingstone Community College to ensure these resources reach workers wherever they are.
Innovation deepening across the region
The innovation ecosystem also made significant strides in 2025. UNC Charlotte launched its CO-LAB space and held its inaugural Invention of the Year competition. The university achieved R1 research status — a major milestone that broadens its funding potential and elevates its national profile. Early this year, a National Defense and Intelligence Innovation Institute was also established at UNC Charlotte, adding another layer to the region's diversifying research capabilities.
The K.I.N.D. Network, an innovation community anchored at Connect Labs with NCBiotech at its center, was formally established — bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and industry partners. The region also welcomed its first MOVE partner, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, out of Union County.
MOVE (Military Outreach and Veterans Engagement) is an NCBiotech initiative that helps transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses find high-impact careers in the life sciences. And the gBETA program from Gener8tor added yet another vehicle for cultivating the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Capping the year on the convening front was the inaugural Charlotte Region Life Sciences Summit, hosted at The Pearl — the first major external event at the innovation district. The summit sold out with 233 attendees, featured two keynotes, six panel discussions, and drew 22 sponsors. Attendees called it extraordinary and noted that there hadn't been a gathering of this kind in the region in nearly eight years. The appetite was real, and the event delivered.
What's ahead in 2026
If 2025 was the year of execution, 2026 looks to be the year of expansion — in scope, in collaboration, and in ambition.
The Pearl itself is just getting started. Phase One is complete, but the master plan calls for much more: additional research buildings, affordable housing, hotels, and even a celebrity chef restaurant. A coalition of economic development organizations is exploring physical presence at The Pearl, further cementing its role as the region's innovation anchor.
Regionally, NCBiotech and its partners are working to develop a unified life sciences recruitment and economic development message — one cohesive voice that speaks to prospective companies, investors, and talent about what Charlotte has to offer. Life sciences has moved up the priority list for many regional economic development partners, and MD&M South, the medical device and manufacturing conference that alternates between New York and Charlotte, returns to Charlotte in April — offering a major platform to showcase the region to a national audience.
Even the geography of collaboration is expanding. A UNC Charlotte researcher is growing his annual symposium on chromatin regulation and genomic integrity to span the Southeast U.S., a small but telling signal of the broader reach this region is starting to command.
"2026 looks like even greater alignment and intentional collaboration," Curtis said. "We're seeing the seeds we've planted start to grow. I'm truly excited to see how that unfolds."
With 157 people moving to the Charlotte region every single day, the foundation is firmly in place. The life sciences ecosystem here isn't just keeping up — it's setting the pace.
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