Biology as Business QuarryBio’s work aids development of drugs and treatments BY DAVID EKRUT, PH.D. // PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE BARFIELD
How does a person turn high-resolution protein analysis into saleable products and a viable business? Eric Graben, founder and CEO of QuarryBio, has built an enterprise around the answer to this question. Graben launched QuarryBio in Bloomington, Indiana, and operated from a space at Indiana University for about five years before he had to relocate. He became interested in Tallahassee after his wife secured a position in the English department at Florida State University, but the move to Florida’s capital city would take nearly two years to accomplish. “It wasn’t a slam dunk,” he said. “A bunch of things had to come together for this to happen.” Initially, there was no wet lab space. A wet lab is a facility capable of housing biological materials, such as cells, proteins and viruses for use in experimentation and analysis. For QuarryBio, it is a crucial component. “You can’t just move to some place where you are going to fail,” Graben said. “When inquiring 20
about a wet lab, they told me, ‘Oh yeah, there are some green fields here if you want to build your own building.’ And that was a little out of my budget.” He spent time exploring the region. The Gainesville area is a major incubator for biological technologies and would be a lot closer to his family, now established in Tallahassee, than Indiana. Many facilities and companies have a relationship with the University of Florida, making the area attractive to startups looking for a place to land. The Sid Martin Incubator, a hub of biological technology innovation, was high on Graben’s list of possibilities. That was before he met Ron Miller, executive director of the Leon County Research and Development Authority at Innovation Park, who was able to secure the lab space Graben needed
| 2021 Tallahassee Innovation & Technology
