Wet lab incubator space launching in Chapel Hill in early 2025

Ed Field discovered his passion for building biotechnology innovation while working with an equity-backed biopharma start-up in Seattle soon after obtaining his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He led the company to acquisition in 2002, and a career was born.

“I learned I really enjoyed meeting entrepreneurs and understanding what they were trying to build,” he said in a recent interview with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “It’s not an easy life, but it is challenging and rewarding to be a part of this industry.”

The Virginia native received his undergraduate degree in economics from Duke University and maintained ties to the area while at Darden and in Seattle. North Carolina’s emerging biotechnology industry was a natural fit for his interests, and he returned to the Triangle in 2004, rolled up his sleeves and again propelled start-ups to success.

Along the way, he realized the area’s university researchers, eager to advance new ideas and technologies, needed off-campus lab and office spaces while keeping costs down. One solution was offered by BioLabs, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., an “international, membership-based network of shared lab and office facilities located in key biotech innovation clusters,” as described on its website. The company has 13 sites in the U.S., Germany and France.

BioLabs NC launched in 2016

BioLabs North Carolina was launched in 2016 to provide those facilities here. Field has served as president from the beginning.

Field described the company on LinkedIn as, “a unique biotech co-working facility aimed to attract the most ambitious startup companies in life sciences.” Its first site in Durham offers open lab and office space to encourage collaboration with advanced research equipment and support services.

BioLabs NC “helps resident companies reach their milestones faster. To date, the lab has been home to over 130 high-impact life science companies in NC.”

In establishing the first BioLabs NC site in downtown Durham, the entrepreneurial Field anticipated several trends: young professionals’ desire to live and work in a walkable environment; downtown developers’ interest in embedding the innovation economy in the urban setting; and new partnerships involving universities and the business community. Together, these provide the invaluable “early innovation ecosystem” Field believes will support future growth.

Part of that growth is a new 23,000-square-feet site on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, developed in partnership with Grubb Properties and expected to be launched later this quarter. An earlier NCBiotech story noted that this incubator space “will be one of the main anchors of the town’s innovation district. Part of the Carolina Economic Development Strategy, the district is a partnership between UNC and the Town of Chapel Hill to retain and attract innovation-oriented businesses and talent.

"Other tenants include Innovate Carolina, the University’s central team for innovation and entrepreneurship; and Launch Chapel Hill, the business and venture lab accelerator created in 2013 through another joint effort by the town, university, and county," Field said.

The site is just a short walk from the UNC campus, Field added. “There has never been shared, off-campus wet-lab space here, and the location is fantastic. This is what we need here.”

Laura Rowley, NCBiotech’s vice president of life sciences economic development, recently visited the Chapel Hill site and was pleased to see how much progress had been made.

“Ed Field’s love of this industry and his hands-on experience with the state’s life-science innovators are reflected in this impressive facility,” she said. “BioLabs NC continues to provide vital support for emerging companies, and we look forward to the launch of the new site in Chapel Hill.”

Mike Carnes, vice president for Emerging Company Development at NCBiotech, agreed.

"The ongoing partnership between NCBiotech and BioLabs has provided entrepreneurs access to two critical resources, financing and space," Carnes said. "We are excited about the expansion of BioLabs in Chapel Hill, and we look forward to supporting the emerging companies with connection to critical resources, human capital, and follow-on investment."

As for the Durham site, Field said, “People have really enjoyed being able to live and work in the same place.” He foresees the same phenomenon in Chapel Hill while acknowledging it is a leap of faith.

“There will always be skeptics, as there were in Durham 8 years ago, but our track record there speaks for itself,” Field added, pointing to two major milestones announced in late October:

• On Oct. 25, 2024, Septerna, a 2022 BioLabs NC start-up, was welcomed to Nasdaq, trading as SEPN, after a $288 million IPO. The IPO subsequently grew to $331.2 million by Oct. 30. Field posted the notice on LinkedIn, commenting, “Septerna started in BioLabs North Carolina! So great to have worked with this team on their journey and know they will continue to make great progress.” Septerna Co-founder and Associate Director Dean Status responded to Field’s post: “NC biolabs was key to our early success, the space is amazing and the great staff allowed us to focus on science, the cornerstone of our success.”
• Just a few days earlier, BioLabs NC-incubated Ocuphire Pharma announced an all-stock acquisition of Opus Genetics, another BioLabs alumnus. The combined company, now named Opus Genetics, began trading under the Nasdaq ticker symbol “IRD” on Oct. 23. In posting that announcement, Field noted, “Great to see this union between a former resident of BioLabs North Carolina and a current one.”

While continuing to serve as BioLabs NC president, Field has taken the next logical step to support the state’s life sciences ecosystem by co-founding Cape Fear BioCapital with fellow long-time entrepreneurs Jimmy Melton, and Dave Ousterout, who also have strong ties to North Carolina.

The group launched in September, announcing a seed capital fund described in its news release as “aimed at building a thriving portfolio of therapeutics ventures that start here, grow here, and, ultimately, improve patients’ lives. This visionary fund is dedicated to both supporting NC-based, early-stage therapeutics companies and to cementing the state’s position as an international nucleus of life science innovation.”

Field said, in the press release, “Our region has an abundance of life sciences innovation, research and management talent, and lab space, but without early-stage funding, many of our best opportunities will not be realized … Cape Fear BioCapital fills the gap, offering essential capital to our founders as they build their companies.”

Of his first love, providing expertise and operational support for life sciences, Field told NCBiotech in 2022, “The pandemic showed developers that you can’t do lab work from home,” Field said. “We’ve seen a flood of capital going towards building these spaces.” With the region’s exploding biomanufacturing industry, current projects in the pipeline could “double the amount of wet labs” in the Research Triangle over the next five years: “There will not be a shortage going forward.”