Business Digest: Startup Sandbox to open wet lab
Startup Sandbox will cut the ribbon Thursday afternoon for a state-of-the-art wet lab at 250 Natural Bridges Drive.
Speakers at the invitation-only event will be Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, Marlene Tromp, UC Santa Cruz provost and executive vice chancellor. Scott Brandt, UCSC vice chancellor of research and Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty.
The first wet lab incubator in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, Startup Sandbox is equipped with minus 80 and minus 20-degree Celsius freezers, autoclave, centrifuge, microscopes, laboratory benches, chemical fume hoods and cell culture facilities plus private offices, cubicles, co-working and conference room spaces.
Startups working in a temporary space can now move into the new space, a project supported with a $700,000 University of California grant, part of the QB3 initiative to accelerate life science innovation and entrepreneurship.
The 3,500-square-foot wet lab will allow 40-plus biotech scientists from UCSC and other research universities to launch new companies with little more than a credit card, according to Judy Owen, chairman of Startup Sandbox.
Owen, who started her career at Intel, was an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for 30 years and now is active in Angels by the Sea, an investor group, with Lou Pambianco, a veteran high-tech management consultant who is Startup Sandbox president.
Having a facility off-campus allows scientists to commercialize their ideas, Owen said, estimating 80 percent of the startups are in biosciences.
Pinpoint Science, Prime Genomics, Up RNA, Unnatural Products, Argentys LLC, Hipic, Dimensional Bioceramics, Claret Bioscience have been among the first members along with Cruz Foam, Santa Cruz Waveworks and Aeroasis.
Owen said another four or five startups have been waiting for the wet lab to be completed.