Aspiring biotech entrepreneurs in Kendall Square now have a new place to set up shop.
LabCentral, the non-profit organization set up this year to provide lab space to Boston-area life sciences innovators, has officially opened its doors. The 28,000-square-foot facility has enough lab and office space to house as many as 25 startups and 100 scientists and entrepreneurs looking to get their ideas off the ground.
LabCentral’s incubator is in an MIT-owned building at 700 Main St. in Kendall Square, and is equipped with 30 individual benches, 22 lab desks, conference rooms, and event space.
LabCentral charges a $400 monthly membership fee, $3,600 in additional cash per month for a bench spot, and $400 each month to secure a lab desk. It also has eight larger private lab suites that can be rented for $14,000-$16,000 per month, and 18 private offices that go for monthly payments of $900-$2,450.
Entrepreneurs have to make it through a competitive review process, through which startups deemed to have the “highest potential” are selected for the space.
LabCentral began reviewing applications in July, and says it got dozens of requests. Five startups have already moved in— LabCentral expects 10 will be using its facility by the end of the year, and says it has an option to add an unspecified “additional space of similar size” if needed.
“Our original projection was to be fully occupied within three years, however, given the positive response, we are already exploring expansion opportunities,” LabCentral president and executive director Johannes Fruehauf said in a statement.
LabCentral was established in February with the help of a $5 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center—funding that came from the state’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative that was approved in 2008.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation—the newly spawned division of J&J that runs the company’s innovation centers in Boston, Menlo Park, CA, and London—is one of LabCentral’s founding sponsors.
