In their first visit to Baltimore since the city was named one of the nation’s 31 Tech Hubs, representatives from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) toured innovation labs and tech sites across the area, including the University of Maryland BioPark.
The EDA’s late-August visit came after the Baltimore consortium, led by the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) — with support from University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and 37 additional partners — missed out on federal grants capped at $51 million during the second phase of the Tech Hub initiative. Though the Baltimore region’s application wasn’t selected, the site visit was seen as an important step forward in securing tech grants during the program’s next round of funding.
Jane Shaab (left) discusses the history of the BioPark and the construction of 4MLK with members of the EDA delegation, including Amanda Kostry (center) and Eric Smith (right).
Eric Smith, director of the EDA Tech Hubs Program, praised Baltimore’s wealth of assets in a video shared by GBC after the event, saying, “There is a culture here and a desire to make the community better. This is asset-rich territory, and that has been on abundant display.”
During the daylong visit, Smith and other members of the EDA delegation met with consortium members representing tech firms, government entities, economic development corporations, and academic institutions. In addition to their stop at the BioPark, the agenda included industry roundtables focused on biomanufacturing and the biotech workforce and a tour of labs at Morgan State University.
The meeting at the BioPark centered on a discussion about economic development initiatives and the growing integration of academic research with private industry.
Jane M. Shaab, MBA, BioPark executive director and associate vice president of economic development at UMB, opened the conversation by introducing two of the research park’s tenants — Marco A. Chacón, PhD, founder and president of IRAZÚ BIO, and Paul Boyce, senior director at Illumina — who shared their experiences in the city’s tech ecosystem.
Chacón outlined his journey as an entrepreneur, starting his first company after graduate school in Maryland, and spoke to the importance of support from government entities to universities such as UMB as keys to success. Boyce emphasized Illumina’s decision to build an East Coast facility at the BioPark, saying its lab facilities along with the region’s commercial and transportation infrastructure made it an ideal location.
Greg Herlong, vice president of development at Wexford Science & Technology, also was on hand to discuss 4MLK, the company’s latest commercial project at the BioPark.
In his remarks about the 250,000-square-foot building at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Baltimore Street, Herlong stressed the facility’s ability to fill a growing need for wet lab space required by regional researchers and entrepreneurs launching biotech and life sciences companies.
He also highlighted a floor in the new building, called Connect Labs, which will provide early-stage companies with shared equipment and infrastructure valued at around $2 million, easing the financial burden for startups that often lack the capital to build their own labs. Including 24 labs, private offices, co-working areas, and more, the space’s goal is to give such companies the opportunity to “fail faster.”
As Herlong explained, “Instead of a zombie company sticking around and just scraping by for 10 years, we want to give them the opportunity to accelerate their science in a manner that within 12 to 24 months, they can either go on to raise that next funding round, or say, ‘Hey, this isn’t going anywhere,’ and move on to the next thing.”
During the conversation, the EDA delegation, representatives from the BioPark and UMB, and members of the GBC-led consortium delved into a number of related subjects, including the need to attract and retain top scientific and entrepreneurial talent to the area. Participants from the Baltimore region noted that continued efforts to recruit faculty and students and provide pathways to start and grow companies is a key focus of their work. They also stressed that the collaboration among higher education institutions such as UMB, Johns Hopkins University, and Morgan State University is crucial to the region’s growth in life sciences.
James L. Hughes, MBA, chief enterprise and economic development officer and senior vice president at UMB, pointed to another key partnership between academic institutions that will benefit from space in 4MLK. “Our sister university within the University System of Maryland is the University of Maryland, College Park. They have a top-20 engineering program,” he said. “And our medical school and their engineering are teaming up to take biomedical research space focusing on translational research on the fourth floor.
“Both universities are currently recruiting entrepreneurial faculty from around the country, and a big part of the pitch is that you can bring your startup company here, grow it here, and we have all these other resources.”
Hughes also stressed the collaborative nature of the BioPark ecosystem beyond university partnerships.
"We’re very, very open,” he said.” If you look at the companies here, you’ll see that our view is you don't need a connection with the University to move into the BioPark — invariably we find a connection.”
The Tech Hubs Program, authorized for $10 billion in the bipartisan federal CHIPS and Science Act, is designed to increase the capacity and pace with which Americans make, deliver, and deploy innovative technologies, creating new, growing companies such as those seen during the Baltimore site visit. Its next round of funding, which has yet to be announced, is expected in 2025.