HOUSTON, March 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today opened JLABS @ TMC, a new 34,000-square foot life sciences incubator providing entrepreneurs shared lab space, private offices, and modular laboratory suites, as well as state of the art equipment and value-added operational, education, and business services. The new JLABS facility can accommodate up to 50 startups, and will open with 21 companies that represent a range of disciplines and geographies. This first “class” of resident startups includes the four winners of the JLABS Quick Fire Challenge, which awards promising early stage innovation companies with residency at the facility.
JLABS @ TMC builds on the successful JLABS model and is the fifth JLABS facility to open in the United States. The Houston site is the first to open with a medical device prototype lab, including a 3D printer, which will provide entrepreneurs access to highly specialized tools, as well as skills building programs to design and develop smart health technologies.
JLABS @ TMC is housed within the TMC Innovation Institute, adjacent to TMC’s life sciences accelerator TMCx, enhancing its “think tank” like environment and encouraging sharing of ideas, collaboration among JLABS, TMC and TMCx residents, and facilitation of relationships with investors and venture capitalists.
“We’re thrilled to expand our JLABS initiative into Houston,” said Paul Stoffels, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson. “The city’s rich research, academic, and investment communities provide a robust ecosystem of early stage innovation, and present a unique opportunity to collaborate with Texas startups to deliver much-needed therapeutics, medical devices, and consumer health solutions to patients and consumers more quickly.”
“We have been eagerly awaiting this day when JLABS @ TMC opens its doors and immediately enhances our already robust ecosystem of talented entrepreneurs who are solving the greatest unmet healthcare needs of our generation,” said Robert C. Robbins, M.D., President and CEO of the Texas Medical Center. “TMC has spent decades making healthcare history, and now these business accelerators housed at TMC will take innovation to new heights.”
JLABS @ TMC joins a network of facilities that are based throughout North America in life science clusters, including San Diego (flagship), San Francisco, South San Francisco, Boston and, opening this spring, the first international location in Toronto, Canada. These facilities are currently home to more than 100 early stage companies advancing bio/pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and digital health programs. The JLABS facilities will have a total capacity for 225 resident companies once all six are open and operational.
“Houston is already a very active life sciences hub, and we’ve recently seen a drive to further embrace the industry, establish clear leadership in biotech innovation and close the gap between research and commercialization,” said Melinda Richter, Head of JLABS. “JLABS is ideally suited to catalyze this result, not only through supporting the development of new healthcare solutions for patients, but also by providing startups with access to the broader JLABS network and its family of incubators.”
Texas Medical Center hosts an increasing number of life sciences and biotech companies via commercialization initiatives, such as its Innovation Institute, steadily growing the opportunities for academic and industry partnerships in Houston.
The following companies are the first selected as residents of JLABS @ TMC:
JLABS @ TMC Resident | About the Company |
Beta Cat Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | Targeting cancer stem cell/tumor activator pathways with potent, in cell, small molecule inhibitors. The lead program is in Wnt/ beta catenin signaling, to help inhibit cancer growth. |
Icell Kealex Therapeutics | T cell engager-armed oncolytic virus for the treatment of solid tumors. |
IDA Therapeutics
| Developing Immuno Diverse Antibodies to fulfill the unmet demand for efficacious antibody-based products in therapeutic, diagnostic and research applications. |
IGY Immune Technologies & Life Sciences | Design & manufacturing of proprietary technology and processes making it possible to create immune health ingredients to strengthen and supplement the body’s natural immune system against broad and targeted bacterial, viral and autoimmune ailments. |
ImmunoMet Therapeutics, Inc. | Innovative oncology drugs to increase patient survival by disrupting cancer metabolism and enhancing anti-cancer immunity. |
Immunophotonics Inc.
| An immuno-oncology company developing a novel drug for use in an in situ autologous cancer vaccine (inCVAX) for the treatment of metastatic cancer. |
Innovate Wireless Health | A real-time, HIPAA-compliant solution that gives health eco-system partners (hospitals, payers, pharmaceutical companies and employers) a technology platform to improve patient outcomes and increase societal benefit within chronic illness populations. |
Medicenna BioPharma | A clinical-stage immunotherapy company dedicated to the development of highly selective cytokines for targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune disease and fibrosis. |
Metaclipse Therapeutics | Developing a personalized cancer immunotherapy using tumor membrane vesicles prepared from the patient’s own tumor and combined with proven immunostimulatory molecules. |
NanoMedical Systems
| Commercializing revolutionary silicon-based medical nanotechnology products that address unmet clinical needs for personalized medicine, via improved biomarker detection for research, microbial surveillance, and diagnostics; long-term subcutaneous drug-delivery implants; and multi-staged injectable antitumor particles. |
Noninvasix | Patient monitoring system to accurately and non-invasively measure cerebral venous oxygenation in real time. |
Oncomfort LLC
| Reducing anxiety during cancer treatment through psychological interventions in Virtual Reality. |
Panamab Inc. | Dedicated to the development of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis associated diseases and infectious disorders. |
Seremedi
| CareScriptions® is a mobile patient management platform for surgical teams supporting perioperative patient care. |
TomoWave Laboratories | Tomography systems that listen to the sound of light absorbed in tissues in order to see inside the human body, and detect and diagnose disease by providing physicians with quantitative functional information with high contrast and molecular specificity. |
Viracyte | Pioneering novel T cell therapies to treat viral infections in order to improve patient outcomes and lower healthcare costs. |
Wntrix | Antibody drug conjugates and beyond: the discovery and development of breakthrough targeted therapies for cancer treatment. |
* Adhesys Medical Inc.
| Developing next-generation surgical adhesives based on polyurethane, which permit quick and safe wound closure, topically as well as inside the human body. |
* Alterna Therapeutics, Inc.
| Developing new therapeutics to treat diabetes and obesity. |
* Procyrion, Inc.
| Aortix is a heart pump implanted without surgery, designed from the ground-up as a safe and effective treatment for chronic heart failure which affects one in five adults in the United States. |
* Resonant Therapeutics, Inc.
| High-throughput antibody discovery platform for breast and other cancers focused on identifying therapeutics targeted at novel antigens induced by the tumor microenvironment. |
* Designates Quick Fire Challenge winners |
Johnson & Johnson Innovation has entered into a collaboration with PerkinElmer, Inc. to outfit the new JLABS @ TMC facility with world-class lab instruments and software as well as to provide training, OneSource® Laboratory Services and on-site technical support for the resident companies.
All JLABS locations are accepting applications from biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer, and digital health companies. To apply, visit www.jnjinnovation.com/jlabs.
About Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC focuses on accelerating all stages of innovation worldwide and forming collaborations between entrepreneurs and Johnson & Johnson’s global healthcare businesses. Johnson & Johnson Innovation provides scientists, entrepreneurs and emerging companies with one-stop access to science and technology experts who can facilitate collaborations across the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer companies of Johnson & Johnson. Under the Johnson & Johnson Innovation umbrella of businesses, we connect with innovators through our regional Innovation Centers, JLABS, JJDC, and our Business Development teams to create customized deals and novel collaborations that speed development of innovations to solve unmet needs in patients. For more information please visit: www.jnjinnovation.com.
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