ANN ARBOR – The University of Michigan and Ann Arbor SPARK said on Monday they plan to fill a former Pfizer facility with U-M researchers and four life sciences startups ? the first tenants of a new wet lab incubator.

Wet labs, highly sophisticated, climate-controlled, specially ventilated research facilities, are far more expensive than typical office space and it is rarely cost efficient to build a lab on the smaller scale a brand new company might need. Incubators are business acceleration centers used to nurture several budding businesses by offering shared infrastructure and services in a shared space.

A similar wet lab/incubator was created in Kalamazoo by Southwest Michigan First and Western Michigan University ? the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center, which also has helped nurture dozens of life sciences companies in the greater Kalamazoo area.

SPARK plans to go one better by developing two office-style incubators – one in downtown Ann Arbor and another in Ypsilanti – to nurture startup companies in other fields. Altogether, SPARK is working with 31 businesses that have located or plan to locate in one of the three new business accelerators. Many either have ties to university research or were founded by former Pfizer employees.

U-M and SPARK, with the help of a $1 million state grant, have assumed Pfizer’s lease of a 34,400 square-foot lab space at the Traverwood office park on Huron Parkway, north of Pfizer’s main Ann Arbor campus.

SPARK and U-M have already begun taking over the space, with plans for SPARK to sublease up to 12,000 square feet to startup companies within the next few months as U-M medical researchers move into the remaining 22,400 square feet.

SPARK leaders have been working with at least 14 startup companies looking for wet lab space, trying to find alternative locations for those they can’t accommodate. The availability of Pfizer space where numerous small companies can be housed presents a large opportunity for many new and growing firms.

Three initial tenants of the wet lab incubator have signed leases, and the fourth company is wrapping up negotiations. Tenants include:

OncoImmune Ltd., an Ohio-based company licensing patents from U-M and Ohio State University, would open an Ann Arbor office with three to four researchers initially working on treatments for multiple sclerosis and cancer.

SensiGen, LLC, uses proprietary technology invented by Dr. David Kurnit, U-M professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, to improve the ability to diagnose early stage kidney disease and cervical cancer.

Genomatix Software Inc, a new Ann Arbor-based subsidiary of Munich, Germany-based Genomatix Software Gmch, which works with U-M, Wayne State University and Pfizer, has occupied 900 square feet of the incubator since August but expects to move to another location outside the incubator as tenants needing lab space move in later this year. The company hopes to have 40 employees within three years.

The wet lab space includes equipment that is ideal for life science companies, and SPARK is further customizing the space with additional equipment needed by tenants. Ann Arbor SPARK received a $1 million grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to develop and sustain the wet lab incubator space for three years.

Through its Business Accelerator and Entrepreneur Boot Camp program, Ann Arbor SPARK is able to identify and support startup biotechnology companies who have expressed need for space within a wet lab incubator.

For more information, click on AnnArborSPARK.Com

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