JLABS @ Toronto By Shawn Lawrence
ONTARIO
JLABS @ Toronto Ontario’s life science startups have a new place to call home Things just got a little more crowded on the 13th floor of the MaRS West Tower as Johnson & Johnson Innovation has officially opened the doors to its newest startup incubator, JLABS @ Toronto. The arrival of JLABS on the Ontario life science scene was greeted with tremendous fanfare, as approximately 2,000 people jammed the entire first floor of the MaRS building as part of a spectacular launch event held on May 11, 2016. Many came out to see the lucky 22 companies selected to be its first residents, while others wanted a first glimpse inside the state of the art facility. While not all were lucky enough to get the grand tour, those who did, got more than they bargained for, learning that there’s plenty of substance behind the hype around this 40,000-square-foot life sciences incubator. As JLABS @ Toronto site head Rebecca Yu explains, the companies taking up residency are about to step into a whole new world. Having worked as director, strategic health technology assessment in the Government Affairs Department at Janssen (Canada), a division of Johnson & Johnson, prior to stepping into her new role with JLABS @ Toronto in December, 2015, she’s witnessed firsthand how the JLABS model works and why it has been so successful in other markets. “The idea is for a startup company to come into the space and have everything they need so they can focus their efforts on what’s truly important, taking their scientific discoveries forward” she says. She adds that tenant companies benefit from the capital-efficient and resourcerich environment that JLABS provides. “For us it’s about giving companies the opportunity to accelerate the development of their technologies by making sure everything, including the physical and operational side of the lab is taken care of and that their business development needs are met.” According to Yu, these are the founding principles behind all of Johnson & John-
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Biotechnology Focus / June/July 2016
son’s JLABS incubation sites across North America. Among them are sites in San Diego (flagship), San Francisco, South San Francisco, Boston and Houston. Together, they house more than 120 early-stage companies advancing bio/pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and digital health programs. Within each of these facilities, companies share lab space and offices, work in modular lab suites and have access to scientific, industry and capital funding experts. This mix of companies is no accident adds Yu, “That’s how we like to see the ecosystem. By having companies with different backgrounds or representing different sub sectors together, working in the same space, they can actually learn from each other and co-create value.” Yu believes both the formula and the success enjoyed at other JLABS sites will easily be replicated at JLABS @ Toronto. To help run the facility, Yu has an inhouse operations team that includes both a manager and an office leader. The team oversees everything at the site ensuring that the existing infrastructure and state of the art equipment is in working order. They also train tenant companies on how to use this equipment, which includes such things as cell culture, western blot and cell imaging, multimode plate readers, cell sorters and a host of othe analyzers. Also, resident companies have a device and digital prototype lab with even more highly specialized tools at their disposal. As an added caveat, JLABS @ Toronto tenants will get to share a receptionist who is able to take calls on their behalf and manage their meetings with potential customers and investors. In terms of user fees, they are customized to the services provided or required. Further on the physical aspects of the
lab, resident companies have flexible options to lease as much lab space as they need. As mentioned, the labs themselves are modular and scalable. Users can remove or add benches and even walls as they see fit. It’s all about accommodating the client company’s needs, Yu explains. “You can come in small and grow as your company grows. It’s very customizable. In San Francisco for example, we thought originally we could host about 40 to 50 companies, but in the end we maxed out at 27 simply because companies took up larger individual spaces,” says Yu. And if privacy is a tenant’s priority, JLABS @ Toronto does offer options here as well. “There are certain labs that are enclosed for example, and likewise, they have lockers and cabinets to lock away and secure their belongings at the end of every work day,” she says. But if Yu has one recommendation, it’s that resident companies should still take full advantage of the open concept labs and workstations. “What we find with the open concept model is that tenants are actually talking to each other and discussing what they are each doing and finding common ground. They come into this space to cocreate and co-think, and hopefully come out with a new product as a result of this convergence.” Then there are the other perks beyond the physical elements to being part of JLABS @ Toronto. These include unrivaled
