Latest news with #LabCentral
Malaysian Reserve
26-04-2025
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
ONO PHARMA USA Announces 2025 Golden Ticket CompetitionNow Accepting Applications from Innovative Startups
Ono Partnering with LabCentral and MBC BioLabs for Fifth Consecutive Year CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ONO PHARMA USA today announced partnerships with LabCentral in Cambridge, Mass., and MBC BioLabs in San Francisco and San Carlos, CA to award each organization one Golden Ticket for an innovative life sciences startup company. The competition is sponsored by ONO PHARMA USA's parent company, Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Ono), and applications will be received through May 2025. The Golden Ticket awards provide two promising early-stage R&D companies lab space and mentorship, components that are vital to the success of promising life science businesses. The competition seeks proposals from startup companies in the oncology, immunology, neurology, and specialty areas. The Golden Tickets Ono is sponsoring will provide one outstanding applicant lab space and related services at each of the partner locations, as well as mentorship from Ono's renowned researchers and business leaders across its global network. LabCentral and MBC BioLabs have partnered with Ono since 2021. Eight companies have won a Golden Ticket, including Leverna, a biotech based in Cambridge, Mass., that specializes in the RNA regulatory processes and regulate gene expression and protein function, and a San Francisco biotech dedicated to creating new antibody/protein with generative AI and data generation. Interested applicants may submit their non-confidential company presentations to: LabCentral, by May 30, to: The Golden Ticket winner will receive a $50,000 credit towards space available at LabCentral's flagship site in Kendall Square for use within a 13-month period, beginning upon receipt. Residents have access to a full range of services, equipment, and amenities. MBC BioLabs, by June 6, to: Winners will receive one-year free lab space at MBC BioLabs in San Francisco and San Carlos, and access to its shared amenities and services. Initial submissions will be accepted for each location, Cambridge, San Francisco and San Carlos, and reviewed by Ono's internal committee. Finalists for each location will be notified and invited to present to Ono in person or virtually at the end of July. Winners will be presented with the Golden Tickets shortly after that. In 2021, Ono entered sponsorship agreements with LabCentral and MBC BioLabs, organizations that support the development of biotech startups and entrepreneurs by providing access to comprehensive laboratory facilities and technologies. Ono has long been a proponent of collaboration in R&D and credits its open innovation model for supporting key scientific breakthroughs over the years. 'As longtime believers in open innovation and the power of partnerships, we are excited to be partnering with LabCentral and MBC BioLabs to offer this Golden Ticket competition,' said Kunihiko Ito, President and CEO of ONO PHARMA USA. 'We encourage companies who are doing outstanding work in Ono's four focus areas – oncology, immunology, neurology, and specialty medicine – to apply. It's our goal to deliver first-in-class medicines to patients who are waiting for them, by leveraging startup technology and Ono's expertise.' About ONO PHARMA USA ONO PHARMA USA, established in 1998 as the U.S. subsidiary of Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., is pursuing the clinical development of new drug candidates. In addition, ONO PHARMA USA is engaged in promotion of the discovery alliances and licensing activities to expand Ono's development pipeline and pursue the commercialization opportunities in the U.S. For more information, please visit About Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. delivers innovative therapies for patients worldwide. Upholding its philosophy of 'Dedicated to the Fight against Disease and Pain,' Ono targets areas with unmet medical needs including oncology, immunology and neurology, and fosters partnerships with academic and biotech organizations to accelerate drug discovery. Through its affiliate, Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Ono is accelerating clinical development and commercial operations in the US and Europe to drive global business expansion and further its commitment to patient care. For more information, please visit the company's website at About LabCentral A private, non-profit institution, LabCentral is a launchpad for high potential life-sciences and biotech startups with 225,000 square feet of space across Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass., and the Harvard University campus. Founded in 2013, LabCentral offers a full complement of programming and networking to life sciences entrepreneurs in addition to fully permitted laboratory and office space for early stage and growing life sciences companies. More information is available at About MBC BioLabs MBC BioLabs is dedicated to helping life-science startups succeed. By renting space as small as a single lab bench and providing these entrepreneurial scientists with access to millions of dollars of equipment, MBC BioLabs allows companies to be fast, focused, and frugal. It has five sites: two in the Mission Bay neighborhood in San Francisco and three campuses in San Carlos, California. Each site has a complete molecular biology core facility that allows companies to do experiments on day one. MBC BioLabs has partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and life-science companies as well as a built-in venture capital firm, Mission BioCapital. These partnerships provide entrepreneurs with valuable insights about where to focus their efforts and accelerates the innovation pipeline. Since opening in 2013, MBC BioLabs has helped launch and grow over 350 companies. These companies have brought over 175 programs into the clinic, produced 13 approved diagnostics, and raised over $20 billion. For more information, please visit the website at
Boston Globe
03-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
At life sciences incubator LabCentral, a change at the top in a challenging time
'We have really changed the way that people build biotech companies,' said Fruehauf, 55, who designed LabCentral as a way for cash-starved startups to save time and money by sharing infrastructure and lab equipment. 'We proposed a new model that seemed crazy and outrageous at the time and it's now being copied all over.' Fruehauf said he's stepping away from day-to-day management to spend more time on the global expansion of his two other businesses, for-profit BioLabs and Mission BioCapital, a venture capital firm. Advertisement The change at the top comes as LabCentral, which has nurtured the growth of 278 life sciences companies over the past decade, O'Toole, 56, who worked at about a dozen startups before joining LabCentral, has been deeply involved in its operations and growth since its founding. She's been responsible for space design, operations at six facilities, and community programming where entrepreneurs and researchers can network, swap tips, and share best practices. Advertisement A major goal in her new role, she said, is to help address 'pain points' for member companies at a time of transition in the life sciences sector. Among other steps, she's working to match them up with investors, including many of the drug giants that are LabCentral sponsors. Just last month, one of LabCentral's member companies, MIT-founded Gensaic, which uses AI-powered protein design to improve the tissue targeting of therapies, O'Toole said she's also been talking with others in the sector about finding ways to offset the impacts of 'I want to think of creative ways that we can offset these challenges and not have innovation be limited as a result of the funding gap,' said LabCentral's incoming CEO Maggie O'Toole. Lane Turner/Globe Staff 'In light of some of the challenges going on in the industry,' O'Toole said, 'I really want to find the right way for us to support our companies. ... I want to think of creative ways that we can offset these challenges and not have innovation be limited as a result of the funding gap.' Fruehauf, who immigrated from Germany, said he's also concerned about whether the United States will continue to be the engine for scientific breakthroughs that has drawn scientists from around the globe. 'The basic science machine that's been going on very successfully over many decades has been put in jeopardy,' he said. 'We hope and we believe that it will become evident to the decision makers that it is in our common interest to not undermine this area where American leads. ... The innovation enterprise in this country is the envy of the world.' Advertisement Maggie O'Toole, incoming CEO, and Johannes Fruehauf, outgoing CEO, in Kendall Square space of LabCentral, which now owns or manages a half dozen biotech coworking spaces spanning 243,000 square feet in Cambridge and Boston. Lane Turner/Globe Staff LabCentral has expanded from its initial site at 700 Main St. in Kendall Square, built with the help of two grants totaling $10 million from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. It now owns or manages a half dozen biotech coworking spaces spanning 243,000 square feet in Cambridge and Boston. They include a pair of lab incubators it manages for Harvard in Allston and the Longwood Medical Area in Boston. More recently, however, occupancy rates are down at LabCentral and across Kendall Square and other Massachusetts biotech clusters. LabCentral abandoned plans for more sites even as it announced it was opening a new O'Toole said she doesn't foresee a major shakeup at LabCentral but wants to improve its 'concierge level of service' to the startups that work there until they advance to the stage where they need larger spaces. Even as she's managed LabCentral operations, O'Toole, a former college swimmer who competes in triathlons, has been an evangelist for the LabCentral model around the world, visiting with life sciences innovators in far-flung locales from Korea and China to Sweden and Australia. She's also hosted hundreds of delegations from across the country and overseas that have visited LabCentral on trips to Cambridge over the years. Just last week, she met with 20 visitors from Oslo, Norway. 'They were trying to understand the secret of Kendall Square,' she said. Robert Weisman can be reached at
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ajinomoto Co., Inc., through its subsidiary Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc., Announces Gold Sponsorship of LabCentral: Accelerating Innovation in Biotechnology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 11, 2025 /CNW/ -- Ajinomoto Co., Inc., a global leader in biotechnology and food innovation, proudly announces its sponsorship of LabCentral, a premier launchpad for high-potential life sciences and biotech startups located in the heart of the Greater Boston biotechnology community. This partnership underscores the Ajinomoto Group's commitment to fostering innovation, collaboration, and scientific advancement in this rapidly evolving sector and thriving ecosystem. The sponsorship is in full alignment with the Ajinomoto Group's purpose to contribute to the well-being of all human beings, our society, and our planet with "AminoScience" and its cutting-edge technologies, including innovations in cell and gene therapy, amino acid, and protein sciences. The Ajinomoto Innovation Strategy Development Team in particular is fully committed to supporting the thriving biotech ecosystem in Cambridge and Massachusetts. LabCentral, located in Cambridge, provides startups with the laboratory space, resources, and community necessary to translate breakthrough ideas into viable solutions. The Ajinomoto Group's sponsorship will enhance LabCentral's ability to support promising ventures in areas such as drug discovery, cell and gene therapy, and other transformative life sciences fields. "LabCentral represents the nexus of innovation and opportunity in biotech, and the Ajinomoto Group is honored to support its mission of empowering next-generation startups," said Dr. Ikuo Kira, Executive Officer & Vice President, General Manager, North America Division. "This sponsorship reflects our dedication to nurturing groundbreaking research and providing the resources that innovators need to succeed." Dr. Johannes Fruehauf, CEO and co-founder of LabCentral said, "We are honored to have the Ajinomoto Group as a Gold sponsor of LabCentral and General sponsor of LabCentral238, and we welcome them to the Cambridge life sciences community. We are confident that their expertise in many areas of biotechnology, including cell and gene therapy, will be incredibly valuable to our resident startups, and the broader biotechnology ecosystem here in Massachusetts." Through this collaboration, the Ajinomoto Group will engage with pioneering biotech entrepreneurs, leveraging its expertise and technology platforms to help accelerate their development journeys. For more information about the Ajinomoto Group and its initiatives, please visit Additional information about LabCentral can be found at About Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ajinomoto Group, a global leader in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of amino acid-based products for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, sports nutrition, health and beauty industries, as well as food ingredients. The company opened its first U.S. office in New York in 1917 and has since grown and expanded its presence, establishing offices and production facilities in North Carolina, Iowa, and Illinois. Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. leverages an international manufacturing, supply, and distribution chain to bring the highest-grade products to customers. For additional information on Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc., please visit About LabCentral A private, non-profit institution, LabCentral is a launchpad for high-potential life-sciences and biotech startups with 243,000 square feet of space across Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass., and the Harvard University campus. Founded in 2013, LabCentral offers a full complement of programming and networking to life sciences entrepreneurs in addition to fully permitted laboratory and office space for early-stage and growing life sciences companies. More information is available at Media Contact: Andrea Rodriguez, arodriguez@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc View original content to download multimedia:
