Low-cost GMO1 lab to breathe life into biotech ideas

Genetically Modified Organisms underpin the biotechnology that could give us greener chemistry, cleaner fuels, more powerful immunological tools and better medicine. Sadly, many biotech ideas die on the way to market, because establishing a GMO1 lab from the ground up is too costly for most new companies. This is the problem INNOVATION DISTRICT COPENHAGEN-partner Symbion aims to solve with their new shared GMO1 Lab-initiative. By Jes Andersen.

A better chance for good biotech ideas

The new low-cost easy-access GMO1 lab is fitted with costly standard equipment such as LAF benches, Fume hoods, thermocyclers, spectrophotometers, centrifuges and incubators. The manager of the new lab hopes to add more equipment as needs – and opportunities – materialize.

The amount of biotech ideas churned by Danish universities is huge, but too many ideas die for lack of lab-access. I really wanted to be a part of a project that gives good biotech ideas a better chance to take root.”: Oana Hawgood, Lab manager, Symbion.

Stepping stone for small companies

Symbion is Denmark’s largest provider of co-working spaces for science -based start-ups. They first made Low-cost Easy-access labs available in 2020, when they opened CPHLabs in partnership with the network organization REBBLS and the University of Copenhagen and with financial support from the Danish Industry Foundation. With the new GMO-lab comes a re-organisation, where Symbion takes over full responsibility for the shared labs. For the lab manager, this willingness to take risks is what attracted her to Symbion in the first place.

So many people talk about the possible benefits of biotech and the fact that biotech start-ups need more support. Symbion is actually doing something in this direction. With this lab, we are building a stepping stone that allows people with great ideas to advance the science towards the market. At the same time, we also create the opportunity for small companies offering services, to develop and have a chance against established players within gene sequencing, protein production or antibody customization”: Oana Hawgood, Lab manager, Symbion.

Four decades of infrastructure for startups

Symbion has provided infrastructure for knowledge based start-ups since the early 1980’s. Founded as a non-profit in a fiercely commercial world, it has managed to build a bridge from academic research to global impact.

We are proud to continuously evolve locations, where start-ups can try out their ideas and share in the synergy that comes when several new companies in the same sector share a canteen and coffee machine – not to mention the many professional and social events that link individual companies”: Peter Thorstensen, CEO, Symbion.

Nourishing a sense of community

Hawgood got to know Symbion through her work for a start-up located in one of their five business locations. What she experienced was a not-for-profit property-manager working hard to nourish and promote a sense of community between the many start-ups on their premises.

I saw, over the years, the effort Symbion puts into building a scientific community, and I see how scientists want to move into the Symbion premises exactly because of this sense of community”: Oana Hawgood, lab manager, Symbion.

A tradition for sharing

Community will also be central to the way the new GMO1-lab is run. While Symbion will provide the most costly standard-equipment, the companies renting benches in the lab are expected to buy and share more specialised pieces of equipment. While this may sound unlikely to work, four years of experience with CPHLabs have proven this is a concept the start-ups embrace.

Companies ARE willing to buy their own equipment and share it with community members. With this new GMO1 lab, we are giving them a platform. Now I can’t wait to see them develop”: Oana Hawgood, Lab Manager, Symbion.

The GMO1-lab is approved for work with genetically modified organisms, as well as wild types classified as Biosafety Level -2.