Carilion Clinic, Regional Collaborators Receive Virginia Grant to Create Biotechnology Incubator in Roanoke
Carilion Clinic is collaborating with a public-private partnership to develop biotechnology incubator labs in downtown Roanoke. The labs will help continue transforming the region into a sophisticated healthcare and life sciences center.
Carilion joins the City of Roanoke, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, Verge and Virginia Western Community College in the collaborative. Roanoke is administering $15.7 million in Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development funds for the project, which the 2022 General Assembly approved.
The funds will create 40,000 square feet of shared biotech lab space in Carilion's former Jefferson Plaza building at 1030 South Jefferson St. in the Roanoke Innovation Corridor. The building’s sleep lab and diabetes nutrition program will move to new offices.
The first-of-its-kind project in the region will allow Carilion Clinic Innovation to work even more closely with the health system's physicians and care teams, furthering the work of those with unique healthcare improvement ideas.
“The shared lab space will attract existing and start-up businesses in the life sciences, biotechnology and healthcare sectors,” said president and CEO Nancy Howell Agee. “But the space is one small step. Most importantly, the building will be an innovative gathering place for our region’s greatest minds to collaborate with those who have promising new ideas about exciting and challenging projects.”
Carilion's Biotech Incubator Partners
With Collaboration as one of its guiding values, Carilion is fortunate to be a partner on the new biotechnology incubator labs in the Roanoke Innovation Corridor.
- The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center is planning the labs and will manage the location’s development and operations.
- Verge is the umbrella organization for the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council (RBTC) and RAMP, the regional business accelerator. RBTC will launch talent programs to attract and retain biotech talent in our region. RAMP will work closely with biotech start-ups to accelerate their development.
- Virginia Western Community College will expand its programs to support the biotech sector’s growing workforce needs and provide continuing education for local school systems to enhance biotech interest among students.
- Virginia Tech will continue contributing to biotech’s regional growth through our VTC partners – Fralin Biomedical Research Institute's faculty research and start-up companies and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine's biomedical research-driven curriculum.
The incubator labs are the next step to providing a foundation for biotech companies to turn inventions and processes into commercial businesses. The project is an outgrowth of a GO Virginia-driven economic development project that identified needs for lab space, access to biotech experts and mentoring opportunities.
GO Virginia funds paid for the new Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center biotech lab space being developed in Blacksburg. The Roanoke and Blacksburg labs will allow Carilion researchers and others to collaborate with health sciences companies, including Johnson and Johnson Innovation and its virtual residency program, JLABS.
The Roanoke-based biotech labs are expected to open in late 2024. They’ll expand the health system’s position as a regional and national destination for world-class, pioneering doctors, nurses, therapists and scientists whose innovative ideas can move closer to helping Carilion's patients and communities.