The Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) held the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art medical research building and bioscience incubator on its campus at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.
 
“The opening of our new medical research building is a milestone for LA BioMed,” said David Meyer, president and chief executive officer, LA BioMed. “It will allow us to recruit and retain the best investigators, giving them world-class labs and work spaces where they can develop new treatments and therapeutics for years to come.”
 
The $63-million, four-story, 78,000 square-foot facility is one of the most advanced medical research buildings in the country. It contains both wet and dry labs, freezer farms, an auditorium that can seat over 150 people, and an 18,000 square-foot bioscience incubator operated by BioLabs, called BioLabs LA BioMed, that can host up to 30 bioscience startups and offers $1 million in shared equipment, private offices and meeting space.
 
“LA BioMed’s new research facility, with its state-of-the art bioscience incubator, holds the promise of medical advances and discoveries that can transform the way we diagnose and treat diseases, potentially saving lives,” said supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “And it is only one of many initiatives currently under way to make Los Angeles County a world leader in bioscience.”
 
LA BioMed has a track record of commercializing discoveries, having spun off 13 startups in the last 12 years. Those include Emmaus Medical, which has developed a treatment for sickle cell disease that is approved by FDA, and NovaDigm Therapeutics, which is developing vaccines for fungal and bacterial infections commonly contracted at hospitals. The institute has also licensed products to two publicly-traded companies, including Kybella, a popular injectable treatment that removes fat from under the chin.