16 Mar Advocate Aurora and Forward BIOLABS to bring solutions to emerging biohealth startups
Advocate Aurora Research Institute, part of Advocate Aurora Health, is providing support to Forward BIOLABS, a premiere midwestern life science incubator, by offering its significant laboratory and clinical research capabilities to Forward BIOLABS’s network of early stage, biohealth startup companies.
Madison, Wisconsin-based Forward BIOLABS is a coworking life science laboratory that provides its startups with lab equipment and staff to manage safety, training and other essential lab operations, all of which boost support by helping entrepreneurs amplify initial investments made into their companies.
“By sponsoring Forward BIOLABS, the Research Institute hopes to help innovative biotech startups leverage Advocate Aurora’s immense research resources and scientific expertise to create new technologies and interventions that will ultimately help our patients live well,” said Monika de Arruda Indig, PhD, MBA, director of biorepository and laboratory services for the Research Institute.
“If the current pandemic has taught us anything, it is that support between research organizations and industry is more important than ever for accelerating research discoveries and development of life-saving drugs and devices,” said Amit Acharya, PhD, chief research officer and system vice president for Advocate Aurora Research Institute. “Forward BIOLABS has created a unique, valuable and symbiotic environment for biohealth startups and academic research labs to collaborate. With the right mix of collaborative research support, Advocate Aurora’s research capabilities can enable entrepreneurial scientists within biohealth startups to thrive while keeping their overhead cost down. The Research Institute is excited to join Forward BIOLABS’ influential list of industry sponsors in assisting its growing community of startups by accelerating their important work.”
Forward BIOLABS currently has 18 biotech startups that use its space, with an additional 10 having successfully graduated to their own spaces. The startups range in field from gene, cell and small molecule therapies to diagnostics, medical devices and more.