QB3 to Collaborate with Johnson & Johnson Innovation on New Incubator

QB3 to Collaborate with Johnson & Johnson Innovation on New Incubator

Agreement Expands Janssen Labs to New San Francisco Life Sciences Incubator

SAN FRANCISCO, June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson Innovation to allocate 5,000 square feet of the space in QB3's new 24,000-square foot biosciences incubator in San Francisco to launch Janssen Labs @QB3.

Under the collaboration, Johnson & Johnson will have an exclusive agreement to create a Janssen Labs facility within the new incubator at 953 Indiana St., near the UC San Francisco (UCSF) campus at Mission Bay, with an option to expand.

The new space, known as QB3@953, is the fifth and largest incubator launched by the state institute and central to QB3's mission to help build the state's bioeconomy by giving startups the tools they need to succeed. By working with Johnson & Johnson's new California Innovation Center in Menlo Park and with Janssen Labs , QB3 hopes to connect startups to partners that can boost their success.  

"Connecting biotech startups to experts in multiple areas of the bioscience industry is critical in helping entrepreneurs launch viable companies," said QB3 Associate Director Douglas Crawford . "This collaboration can help expand QB3's network of entrepreneurs, while also bridging the gap for many technologies that would not otherwise have a chance to develop."

The agreement marks the first geographical expansion of Janssen Labs, a San Diego life-science incubator that is currently home to 29 companies.  Janssen Labs @QB3 will have a similar open-innovation approach to the San Diego labs, in which entrepreneurs have the benefit of the insights of a major healthcare company, with no strings attached.  Johnson & Johnson affiliates will identify innovators who are developing promising science to address important unmet medical needs.

Companies in Janssen Labs @QB3 will have access to QB3's resources, which include legal and business advisors, assistance in grant writing for federal Small Business Innovation Research funds, and access to high-end equipment and technology in UCSF facilities.

"The partnership is about lifting up courageous scientists who are out there on the edge of discovery, without compromising their intellectual property," Crawford said. "Our hope is that this support will greatly increase the chances of these companies having an impact on both our economy and our health."

The QB3 system also includes two facilities on and adjacent to the UCSF Mission Bay campus, and two others in Berkeley. QB3 is leasing the new space through Dewey Land Co. and will sublease it directly to entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, the new incubator aims to house 20 to 30 new startup companies. Those startups will lease space as at the other QB3 incubators: in amounts as small as a single research bench, making state-of-the-art laboratory space affordable to fledgling operations. QB3@953 will be open to life science startups from both within the University of California and from the outside.

About QB3
QB3 is a cooperative effort among private industry and more than 220 scientists at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. One of four technology institutes created in 2000 by former California Governor Gray Davis , QB3 has a joint mission of supporting science, driving the California economy and transforming scientific research into public good.

Fundamental to the latter two missions are QB3's efforts to commercialize University of California science by creating mutually beneficial partnerships with industry and supporting innovative entrepreneurs. The effort has led to 54 bioscience startup companies currently in QB3's incubator network. QB3 also operates Mission Bay Capital, an $11.3M seed-stage venture capital fund designed to support UC startups. For more information on QB3, visit www.qb3.org.

SOURCE California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)