Topping-Off Ceremony of 4-Story Research Building at LA BioMed Propels LA County’s 1st Biotech Hub
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Investigator(s)
Torrance, CA (February 7, 2018): Calling the day a “major milestone,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas joined officials of LA BioMed for the topping off ceremony of their 78,000 square foot research building and incubator that is an integral component of LA County’s 1st Biotech Hub, emerging in the heart of LA BioMed’s 11.5-acre research park adjacent to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.
The $63 million building—expected to open in December of this year—will include an 18,000 square foot bioscience incubator housing approximately 25 LA BioMed spinoff and outside startup companies. The $6 million build-out of the incubator was equally funded by LA County and philanthropists Melanie & Richard Lundquist.
"This is a major milestone in Los Angeles County's ongoing efforts to promote the bioscience industry," Ridley-Thomas said. "This new bioscience incubator will help start-ups become successful companies, bringing new medical breakthroughs to market while creating well-paying jobs throughout the County."
In addition to the incubator, the four-story building is currently slated to include:
- A wet lab where research teams will work on new diagnostics and therapeutics;
- A dry lab that will be used for computational biology and medical informatics – allowing re-searchers to process the massive amounts of data that comes from precision/personalized med-icine and telemedicine; and
- A 160-seat lecture hall, conference rooms, a data center, numerous offices and a freezer farm for bio-banking of tissue samples.
"Our mission of generating social impact through breakthrough therapies for orphan diseases has taken a huge step forward with this topping off ceremony as we move closer to becoming an essential hub of bioscience with a global reputation and impact, all in the name of changing, and saving, lives," said David Meyer, PhD, President & CEO, LA BioMed.
LA BioMed is a non-profit biomedical research organization that was founded in 1952. Located in Tor-rance, LA BioMed has over 100 principal investigators—PhDs, MDs and MD/PhDs—working on over 600 research studies. And this past year, LA BioMed saw one of its research efforts, Endari, become the first treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pediatric patients with sickle cell disease, and the first new treatment approved by FDA in nearly 20 years for adult patients.