With a bold vision and strategic investment, New York City is emerging as a global hub for the life sciences. With opportunities spanning across disease areas like oncology, cardiology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and more, NYC is proving to be a fertile ground for the development and commercialization of therapeutics, devices, vaccines, digital health tools, and sustainability solutions.
The numbers tell the story. The city’s seen a 59 percent increase in life sciences employment over the past decade, with company growth quadrupling from 2019 through Q4 2023, and over 4M square feet of wet- and dry-lab space coming online. The City of New York is meeting the moment with LifeSci NYC, a $1.1B+ public investment to create 40,000 jobs, grow the city’s life sciences ecosystem to 1K companies, and unlock 10M square feet of lab space. And the world has taken notice—in October 2023, Chan Zuckerberg pledged $250M, alongside a City-State $20M investment, to establish the CZ Biohub New York. The City’s investment has also attracted venture capital firms who are focused on investing in disruptors in biotechnology, bioinformatics, machine learning, AI, and healthcare IT—VC firm Two Bear Capital opened its new headquarters in Manhattan last year.
What’s more, advanced technologies in life sciences are entering an exciting new era powered by supercomputing, data science, AI/ML and robotics—and NYC is ready to capitalize on the technological revolution in life sciences with over 40,000 workers trained in AI and over $32B in VC funding since 2021.
On top of these landmark investments and developments, specialized life sciences and biotech clusters have developed across the city—along Manhattan’s West Side, Long Island City, the Brooklyn waterfront, and the main hub in Kips Bay. These clusters bolster visibility, accelerate new business formation, and encourage public-private collaborations while fostering a diverse and equitable workforce.
Kips Bay in particular has steadily emerged as a hotbed for life science growth and opportunities. This neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan is already home to the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences and Deerfield’s CURE, housing resident companies like Kallyope, LEXEO, Immunai, and Apertura, and boasting proximity to institutions such as NYU and others on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, including Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell, MSKCC, Mount Sinai, HSS, and more.
And now add the Science Park and Research Campus (SPARC) Kips Bay to the picture. SPARC Kips Bay will be a first-of-its-kind job and education Center, transforming the Hunter College Brookdale campus into a state-of-the-art life sciences, healthcare, and public health hub. Combining public institutions and private life sciences industries, SPARC Kips Bay will offer community-centric public spaces, healthcare training centers, and up to 1M square feet of real estate for life sciences. The planned integration of three flagship CUNY schools, a public high school focused on health and science, and a new forensic pathology center further cement SPARC Kips Bay’s vision to elevate life science education and public health.
The City has released a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), inviting visionary proposals for a Center that will house translational R&D and commercialization, stimulate interdisciplinary partnerships, and nurture talent development. The City is also setting aside up to $100M of City Capital for an anchor tenant to establish the Center.
Seize the opportunity to shape the future of life sciences by responding to the RFEI by Tuesday, August 6, 2024.
The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.