The University of Chicago signed a partnership with CIC, a Massachusetts-based operator of shared workspaces and labs, to incubate dozens of startup companies within the university’s leased space in Hyde Park Labs, a flagship science building under construction at the corner of 52nd Street and Harper Avenue.
Although life sciences researchers at Chicagoland’s many universities often develop new therapies and drugs, the region’s lack of lab space often forced many to take their discoveries, and the jobs eventually created, to research hubs in cities like Boston or San Diego, said CIC founder and CEO Tim Rowe. But the university’s new lab space, and the opportunity to share ideas with like-minded scientists, should help change that.
“It’s a tragedy that so many researchers have left Chicago for the East or West coasts, because their ideas were developed here,” he said, but universities aren’t set up to nurture startup companies. “We needed a professional entity that does that for a living.” But Jonathan Metzl, office brokerage leader for Cushman & Wakefield, said the long-term outlook for life sciences is still bright.