SCRA MUSC Innovation Center has grand opening

Charleston Regional Business Journal
Chelsea Hadaway
December 18, 2009

Researchers, community officials, business leaders and startups celebrated the grand opening today of the SCRA MUSC Innovation Center on Meeting Street.

Formerly the Weil’s Sleep Products mattress factory, the Innovation Center was renovated to be an incubator for biotech and life science startup companies. It has 11 wet lab spaces, equipment, offices and common space to house the next generation of companies taking research and technology into commercialization.

The Medical University of South Carolina receives more than $200 million in federal research money a year, and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said this center will give Charleston the infrastructure it needed to take that research and turn it into new jobs and new products.

“Communities have to pivot if they want to progress,” Riley said. “That’s what today represents.”

Currently, the center has lined up four tenants, all of which use technology and research from MUSC, said MUSC President Ray Greenberg.

“These companies represent the future of biotechnology in Charleston,” Greenberg said.

Dr. Ryan Fiorini is the founder of Immunologix, one of the startups moving into the space.

The company started about a year ago using technology invented at MUSC that allows for the creation of antibodies to treat any disease. Immunologix will create antibodies and sell them to pharmaceutical companies.

“We had clients knocking on our door but we didn’t have the space or equipment to meet the demand,” Fiorini said. With the wet lab space and equipment, Immunologix will have the means to start production of the antibodies.

“This is saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Fiorini said, referring to the costs the company would have incurred in building its own wet lab and buying its own equipment, such as the sterilizers, freezers and other equipment that will be available in the center.

Dr. Andrew Kraft of Vortex Biotechnology will also be using wet lab space at the innovation center. Vortex partner Charles Smith, a chemist at MUSC, has created and patented a drug to treat prostate cancer and leukemia. But the company needed space for drug development, including testing for side effects, dosage and effectiveness when combined with other treatments.

“We’re trying to take this drug to the people,” said Kraft, who is also director of the Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC. “Patients are expecting this from us.”

About 15 or 16 companies can be housed in the Innovation Center, said John Gregg, executive vice president and chief information officer for SCRA. They are working with Steve Lanier at MUSC; SC Launch; and Ernest Andrade, director of the Charleston Digital Corridor and director of business development for the city of Charleston, to find other prospects.

CEO Bill Mahoney said SCRA has several prospects in the pipeline wanting to rent space at the center. If all prospects come through, he expects the center could reach capacity within the next quarter.

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