The University of Illinois at Chicago will open a new bioscience laboratory called the Health, Technology and Innovation Center at the Medical District near UIC’s medical school mid-summer. 

The lab will serve as a chance for start-up companies to further develop their work and will also give professors, faculty and community members the chance to research specific bioscience projects. It will be open to anyone who wants to rent space, including researchers from all three University of Illinois campuses.

The $3.4 million project was partially funded by a $1.7 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The remaining $1.7 million will be provided by UIC. The lab was created by renovating 12,000 square feet of lab space for bioscience use. 

“Illinois’ thriving, cutting edge life sciences sector creates jobs while improving people’s lives,” Gov. Pat Quinn said in his April 24 press release. “The HTI will drive further growth in the field, serving as a key resource for our medical science researchers and providing a new platform through which innovative ideas can be developed and introduced to the marketplace.”

Heather Tarczan, director of communications and administration for the Illinois Medical District, said HTI was loosely modeled after the University’s EnterpriseWorks model. The HTI will contain “wet labs” and “dry labs,” along with different conference rooms.

Tarczan said “wet labs” are technologically advanced laboratories that contain aspects that are vital for complex experiments, such as access to gas lines and innovative air circulation, which will allow scientists to breathe in fresh air. 

“Dry labs,” she said, “are more like middle school labs … The most you could do in it is maybe dissect a frog.”

The technology hub will mainly be a tool for people to help prove the legitimacy of their new technologies to have successful start-ups.

“It will be accessed not so much by students, but by people who are starting a biofinance company (for example) who need a place that has a lab to do some lab work,” Tarczan said. “So there might be some professors or other start-up companies that want to test their products, have it validated, get some mentoring from people who will be working at the labs and people from the biosciences community.”

Kapila Viges, director of EnterpriseWorks Chicago at UIC, said HTI will have a monthly rental fee for those who are interested in using the lab for research. She said the new hub will benefit the University of Illinois as a whole because it will allow for more successful biotechnology start-ups originating from the university system.

“Our objective is to validate technology, convert technology into products and accelerate them,” she said. “We’re testing out the viability and getting them through the concept stage so that they are more viable start-ups when they actually do start up.”

Viges said a good start-up reputation would affect the University’s reputation, but the proximity and easy access to the lab would also positively affect the Urbana-Champaign campus.

“It’s not just reputation (that affects the University), but it’s also that they also have access to it,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for UIUC faculty, students and staff to have a place to come collaborate, meet with colleagues up here in Chicago, have a place to do some work and collaborate here as well.”

Lesley Millar, director of the Office of Technology Management at the University, said the University has had an increasing amount of start-up companies in recent years, a number that will likely continue to rise with this added lab.

“This is a valuable addition to the resources for incubation and commercialization of technology from the University of Illinois,” she said. “The UIUC campus has launched 34 start-up companies over the last five years … We are seeing increasing numbers in the life sciences, medical devices or diagnostics tools area and therefore this is a welcome addition.”

According to Quinn’s press release, the HTI at Chicago is part of the governor’s agenda to create jobs and drive Illinois’ economy forward by bringing experts together to “create the nexus for an interdisciplinary approach to drug, diagnostic, medical device and information technology development.”

Bioscience experts at the University will not have an opportunity to rent any lab space until summer, but results from research conducted this summer will likely follow soon after.

“The beauty of this facility is it’s not only restricted to UIC and instead is a part of the system as a whole, so it’s open to all campuses,” Tarczan said.

Brittany can be reached at [email protected].