Free lab and office space available in the Lab Hotel at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst

• The Lab Hotel provides free laboratory and office accommodation for start-up companies for six months.
• Applications to join the Lab Hotel are welcome from start-ups working in advanced therapeutics and drug discovery.
• Companies in the Lab Hotel have access to scientific and business support while they develop their innovations and secure their next round of funding.

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) is offering free lab and office accommodation for start-ups – and space is available now. In addition to free accommodation, Lab Hotel occupiers receive scientific and business support, access to SBC’s networks and introductions to investors to help their business grow and develop.

George Tetley is the Chief Scientific Officer at ImmTune Therapies which has recently moved to new accommodation at SBC. He says, “The Lab Hotel provided us with a superb 'off the shelf' facility which enabled us to get going in the lab rapidly and make big steps forward.” George adds, “This makes a huge difference to small start-ups like us, by eliminating most of the capital costs (which could run into hundreds of thousands) and allowing us to generate IP in-house to our own time scales. The Lab Hotel at SBC made an enormous difference to us last year and will do so in future for other small companies.”

As part of its commitment to supporting early-stage start-ups, SBC opened the Lab Hotel in 2020. Its purpose is to support start-ups working in advanced therapeutics and drug discovery to develop their innovations and secure their next round of funding.

Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE is CEO at SBC. She says, “Providing support for translation of early-stage research is part of SBC’s vision. Our Lab Hotel has now offered space to seven biotech start-ups with more to come soon.” She adds, “The Lab Hotel gives young life sciences companies access to the facilities and support they need to take their innovative ideas to the next stage. It is fantastic to see these fledgling companies develop and grow.”

The Lab Hotel can accommodate up to four start-up companies for six months at any one time. Having benefitted from the Lab Hotel, many existing occupiers have expanded into larger lab and office space within SBC.
Recent occupiers of the Lab Hotel include Oppilotech, Stratosvir and ImmTune Therapies which have all gone on to take larger spaces within SBC. Ladder Therapeutics is one of the current occupiers with more new start-ups due to join soon.

SBC is a leading location for the development and commercialisation of cutting-edge therapeutics. Around 40 life sciences companies are based at the SBC campus, creating an exciting, knowledgeable and collegiate community where interaction and collaboration are the norm.
To find out more about the Lab Hotel or make an application, see SBC’s website or email hugo.villanueva@stevenagecatalyst.com.

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About Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst
Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst is a world-leading science park of global significance and is located at the centre of the largest cluster of cell and gene therapy companies in Europe. Since its opening in 2012, occupier companies have secured £2.8bn in funding and it has attracted over 70 high-profile occupier businesses and world-class research organisations to Stevenage.