Carlsbad Biotech Incubator Showcases Life Sciences Startups

Nine Biotech Startups Demo Possible New Drugs or Technologies to Treat Cancer, Ease Pain and Diagnose Disease  

The City of Carlsbad and Bio, Tech and Beyond hosted their first Life Sciences Startup Showcase today. Nine life sciences startup companies updated the community and possible investors on the growth of their companies and demonstrated their ideas which included possible new drugs and technologies to help treat cancer, ease pain, diagnose diseases, manipulate DNA and develop new sources of biomass based feedstock.

“Two years ago, the City of Carlsbad launched the incubator with the goal of supporting our city’s life science industry, a core industry cluster and important driver of economic growth,” said Christina Vincent, economic development manager, City of Carlsbad. “Today we saw nine startup biotech companies that have passed through the incubator and are contributing to our vibrant life sciences sector, as well as to society with important research and solutions. The City of Carlsbad is proud of our partnership and continued success of Bio, Tech and Beyond.”

In 2013, the City of Carlsbad rented a vacant, 6,000 square foot building to Bio, Tech and Beyond, which was co-founded by Joseph Jackson and Kevin Lustig.  The life sciences incubator pays its own operating expenses and allows anyone with an idea to utilize the space and equipment to research and test that idea for a monthly fee. Besides space and shared lab equipment, Bio, Tech and Beyond offers its members an opportunity to network with scientists and receive advice from business experts on how to take their idea and turn it in to a viable business.

“Since our launch,” explains Jackson, “we’ve received inquiries and visits of on average 6-7 companies per month interested in utilizing the lab to launch their business. We currently host 18 companies based out of the facility and in just two years of operation, 80 researchers have benefited from the lab. Bio, Tech and Beyond offers an unprecedented combination of flexible, affordable, access to equipment and infrastructure to conduct your research.  In fact, we are a truly unique option in nearly a one hundred mile radius.  Some of our entrepreneurs commute one hour in one direction to access the facility, and in addition to our Carlsbad residents, we have groups originating from areas ranging from Murrieta, La Jolla, Orange County, Poway, Irvine, and downtown San Diego. “