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Biotech startups that have joined LabCentral have uniquely positioned their scientists to be part of a thriving ecosystem and use it to accelerate their research. From the community of fellow peers to LabCentral’s staff experts and shared resources, scientists have everything they need to carry out their work.

In a recent blog, “What to Expect as a Biotech Startup Founder Joining LabCentral,” Tim Jarrett, LabCentral’s Associate Director of Resident Success, explored the business benefits of LabCentral residency. In this post, we’re exploring the resident experience for scientists and researchers with Lyndsey Rissin, Director of Science Strategy & Partnerships.

How does LabCentral think about scientists’ experience while in residence?

Scientists are the foundation of every resident company and make up the majority of the LabCentral community. They’re the ones driving innovation, making discoveries, and working on new therapies, diagnostics and technologies that have the potential to transform human health. LabCentral is focused on ensuring that they have what they need to do their work, helping them build their networks, and presenting them with learning opportunities as part of our community.

On day one, we make sure our scientists understand the range of offerings available to them and who to go to with any questions or requests. Whether it’s a lab or non-lab topic, it’s essential that they know how to navigate the LabCentral team and our services.

We’ve been onboarding scientists since 2013 and have learned a tremendous amount along the way that has influenced our approach. Onboarding starts with pairing every new scientist with a LabCentral liaison on their first day. This will be their go-to person for questions or concerns, helping them connect with LabCentral problem solvers. Our technical problem solvers include the Lab Operations team that is readily available for on-the-spot feedback, training, and technical support, ensuring that everything is going smoothly.

It is our goal to help our resident scientists acclimate to our facility and team so that they can be productive from the start. We work incredibly hard at this and it’s an ongoing, evolving process.

What would you say is one of the most unique aspects of the experience you provide for LabCentral scientists?

Science Strategy and special programming are big differentiators. Our Science Strategy team is a valuable resource for resident scientists that takes a consultative approach to learn about their needs and connect them to tools and expertise, enabling them to do their science better. By staying abreast of the latest scientific advancements and developing, managing, and maintaining relationships with our robust list of equipment Sponsors and service providers, LabCentral continues to evolve to meet the needs of scientific innovation. LabCentral operates over $5 million of shared equipment at our 700 Main Street location alone. Our offerings include basic equipment to more specialized assets that span the variety of research we support at LabCentral, such as protein engineering, cell and gene therapy development, and drug discovery. We’ve also expanded to enable early process development work at our LabCentral 238 facility, further preparing our resident start-up companies for manufacturability and clinical trials. This access to specialized equipment would be extremely costly for scientists to acquire on their own in a privately leased or owned space and extremely difficult to find at other incubators.

The Science Strategy team listens to residents and advocates for their needs through regular office hours and individual meetings. While science and start-up company needs are ever evolving, learning about their challenges, and bringing in new vendors and service providers as Sponsors is critical to our shared success and fostering innovation. In addition to capital equipment, our Sponsors provide expertise and applications support to help scientists maximize their utilization of the provided instruments. As research progresses and pivots, researchers may need to generate different data sets and the broad offerings and support at LabCentral enables this with a short turnaround time. In short, Science Strategy serves as a liaison to connect people for knowledge and experience sharing. While start-up teams can be small, it is helpful to have camaraderie in the labs across companies, and we facilitate these interactions.

We also hold numerous events for our scientists, including technical trainings and demos to highlight products and instrumentation for the scientists who may benefit from using them. Given how precious time and resources are for start-up companies, we aim to provide equipment that will produce the appropriate data, improve efficiency, and remain relevant throughout their technical development. We see many of our Sponsors onsite on a frequent basis talking to residents and working with them to solve problems. This dedicated and curated support enables accelerated achievement of scientific discoveries.

What are some of the other key services that new resident scientists can expect?

LabCentral has teams who manage shared services and infrastructure, maintain our facilities and labs, as well as an Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) team to promote a safe work environment. Our resident scientists also have access to offerings outside of the lab, like centralized procurement, shared conference rooms, shipping and receiving services, onsite consumables kiosks, printers/scanners, communal cafes, and a 24/7 ‘nap’ room because we know, science never sleeps! LabCentral removes the operational burden from our resident scientists so they can focus on delivering value to achieve their aggressive technical and business milestones.

LabCentral provides biosafety permitting, removing the need for residents to establish their own permits and Institutional Biosafety Committees, which saves a lot of overhead and time. LabCentral also provides all required EHS training and chemical/biological waste hauling services. We’re proud to employ their Red2Green biowaste recycling program among other sustainability initiatives across our facilities. All of LabCentral’s services are included with the monthly member and space fees which makes it easy for companies to budget and provides flexibility for shifting priorities.

We pride ourselves on creating a thriving community and culture for our residents at LabCentral. Whether they’re business leaders or scientists, we’re focused on offering our residents advantages that accelerate their success and that they simply can’t find anywhere else.

If you’re interested in learning more about LabCentral residency, contact Tim Jarrett at tjarrett@labcentral.org or Megan Rivera at mrivera@labcentral.org. If you are interested in sponsoring LabCentral, please reach out to Lyndsey Rissin at lrissin@labcentral.org