Little life science businesses can rent a bench at SMIC

On the first level of the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center, 2,300 square feet of secure wet lab space complete with sophisticated scientific equipment has been put in place to help tiny life science businesses grow.

These are the businesses that someday may be able to rent space of their own in the business incubation center that as it approaches its 10th anniversary houses 18 client companies and is about 75 percent full.

In the Business, Research and Technology park on the Western Michigan Campus, the SMIC this week unveiled state-of-the-art equipment, bench space and support for businesses that can't afford fully equipped labs of their own.

The lab has been two and half years in the making, funded in part with $100,00 from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Lab manager Greg Cavey's ability to stretch those dollars through budget savings methods like purchases on govbid -- an eBay like system for scientific equipment that sometimes features items from downsizing pharmaceutical companies in its original crate -- went a long way toward making the lab as complete as it is.

Cavey met with life science entrepreneurs to get a sense of what kind of equipment would be most useful to them as he equipped the core lab. Mass spectrometry systems, centrifuges, autoclaves, flow cytometers, a variety of microscopes, incubator, lyophilizer, upright freezer, and standard lab supplies and tools are all found there.

"Among the challenges startups face are access to affordable lab space and equipment, and access to affordable, quality analytical services," says Cavey. "Launch MI Lab and SMIC are designed to help entrepreneurs tackle both issues."

SMIC's wet lab space comes with affordable short- and long-term leases. Typically, SMIC space rents for about $800 a month for about 500 square feet of lab space. In the core lab scientists might rent four to six feet of bench space with access to instruments needed for their research for two to three days at a rate they can afford.

Each client has personal bench space and a work station with high-speed Internet access and VOIP telephone service, use of conference and café facilities, and free parking.

The lab could play a critical role in the launching of new businesses locally because for a life science business to succeed it has to have the ability to conduct the research that will interest others in funding a company or more research. Findings to lead to funding. None of the equipment required for that research is cheap. Some, like the mass spectrometer, can run upwards of $450,000 new. (The devices are used to used for determining masses of particles and determining the chemical structures of molecules, among other uses, and a number are found in the new laboratory.)

Besides being able to use instruments vital to their research, by working in the Innovation Center they have access to  support services that can help scientists who may not have strong business skills. New businesses also can benefit from the collaborative nature of other life science businesses located there and the expertise of their owners.

SMIC works with companies that are doing research that may lead to treatment breakthroughs that will propel the company's growth. But an aspect of opening the core lab to fledgling businesses is that it builds on SMIC's work fostering the growth of contract research organizations, companies that do research for drug trials outsourced to them by larger drug manufacturers.

At a time when more and more pharmaceutical companies are going this route with their drug trial research, SMIC's work supporting CRO's is one thing that sets SMIC apart from other life science incubators, says Robert DeWit, Ph.D., chief executive officer of SMIC.

The core lab also can do work for companies that may have the capability to do research work but don't have the capacity to do it, says Cavey. "We can do the analysis for them, put it on a data stick and a few days later they are getting the results."

Cavey already is working with about 25 clients performing such research.

Cavey, a biochemist and experienced research investigator, has done lots of different kinds of work in the life sciences research field. As he stands surrounded by the laboratory he has assembled talking about working with clients to make their businesses grow Cavey says: "I like this best."

Kathy Jennings is the managing editor of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave. She is a freelance writer and editor.

Photos courtesy Southwest Michigan Innovation Center.