The model for advancing innovation in life sciences has changed. In the past, scientists who wanted to explore the potential for a new drug needed to secure funding, build laboratories and hire specialized staff all before getting to the work of advancing their science itself. A process that could take two years or more.
SmartLabs was formed with a unique model that allows scientists to focus on their work, in order to help accelerate innovation, according to Dipankar Ghosh, Ph.D SVP of Technical Operations at SmartLabs, the Boston-based organization that pioneered the first integrated platform combining reconfigurable lab infrastructure, operations and scientific expertise.
"As the industry transitions from traditional drug discovery and life sciences R&D to faster-paced, complex modalities, SmartLabs empowers innovators by providing turnkey lab solutions. This allows scientists to focus fully on advancing their research, free from the logistical demands of lab setup and management," says Ghosh.
Ghosh shared his thoughts on the changing needs of life sciences companies, the importance of enabling a broader range of stakeholders to optimize their research and development, and how innovative models can help future-proof the industry.
Why did the changing needs of the life sciences industry necessitate a new, collaborative model?
Dipankar Ghosh: It can take years to build laboratories and then find all the right people to do the technical and operational work that’s required in this environment.
SmartLabs provides customized laboratory space for scientists and newly formed companies to enable them to start doing their work very quickly. We operate multiple Managed Research Centers in Boston & Cambridge with advanced lab infrastructure, and Invivo facilities. This includes the full suite of technical functions that are needed to run R&D – from lab operations, IT, facilities to obtaining permits and ensuring local environment, health and safety (EHS) standards and waste management services. In effect, this enables our partner companies to hit the ground running and focus on their scientific discoveries.
We started noticing that when our existing customers as well as our new clientele were graduating from our spaces and moving and expanding, they wanted us to design and set up their laboratories and sometimes even manage them. It told us there's a big need for us to serve industry partners wherever they’re located. That’s what led to an approach that we call Custom Developed Solutions, a new platform that expands our offering to support client scale-up efforts with comprehensive expertise regardless of their location and encompasses the design and construction of cutting-edge research centers, along with resourcing and managing all operational workflows essential to the success of scientists.
By overseeing every aspect of laboratory operations and providing access to deep domain expertise, our Custom Developed Solutions model enables a broader range of innovators and industry stakeholders – from landlords and real estate developers to academic institutions and biopharma companies – to optimize R&D resources and accelerate the path to therapeutic breakthroughs. It allows us to go to either a customer’s already acquired space or work with real estate developers to find a location and build out the laboratory space and manage all the technical operations.
Scientists are often required to manage all operations workflows in their labs. How does providing operational support help accelerate drug discovery?
About 15 years ago, I was in the process of setting up my own laboratory. I knew the science that I needed to do but I really struggled to set up the laboratory itself. Now, I see scientists going through the same thing: They have phenomenal ideas and the backing of venture capitalists and just need to hit the ground running. At SmartLabs, we set up the laboratory for them and our Custom Developed Solutions approach allows us to do so anywhere in the world. If the need is there, we have the capability to build out these extremely well-developed scientific research centers that allow scientists from all over the world to accelerate their science without having to move to our Managed Research Centers in Boston.
What drove the demand to introduce a new operational support model?
What we heard from many customers is that they’d like to be situated in other locations [outside of Boston and San Francisco] and still work with SmartLabs to build out and operate their laboratory spaces. Now we can do both – continue serving clients in key innovation hubs where we have our own Managed Research Centers, while simultaneously expanding our reach to address the market’s evolving needs.
We recognize that the life sciences industry is global, with significant needs and opportunities outside North America. The Custom Developed Solutions model allows us to bring the benefits of our platform to life science innovators around the world.
The goal of the new model is to enable a broader range of innovators and industry stakeholders to optimize R&D resources and accelerate the path to therapeutic breakthroughs. Can you explain the need to take a multi-stakeholder approach to innovation?
Drug discovery happens in several stages: There is early-stage research and development, pre-clinical, clinical, manufacturing and commercialization, and helping our customers requires a multi-stakeholder approach.
Among our team, we have functional experts including a lead architect, real estate SMEs , directors of laboratory R&D and Current Good Manufacturing Practice, as well as other critical functions like environmental health, biological waste, chemical waste, permitting, security. This multi-stakeholder approach means that we take care of everything science innovators need so that scientists can focus on the science.
In what ways does shifting toward lab infrastructure solutions “as a service” help future-proof the biopharma industry?
When scientists want to move from the startup phase to more complex science and need more space, for example, our laboratories are built to pivot to their needs. This future-proofs their investment because it means that there is no need to move or devote critical time to finding another laboratory or new solution providers that can support them with various services. We take care of everything.
Our research centers are designed and built using modular infrastructures – including removable walls and advanced ceiling-mounted utility connections, which allows us to move the structures from, 5,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet, for example, without pulling in new power lines, new gas lines or new plumbing lines. We move things around and within the space of a few weeks, we can help them grow from a small innovation suite to a larger scale up suite
We also provide technical equipment like cell counters, centrifuges, qPCR machines and microscopes that are needed to do the analytical chemistry or biological work; we purchase them, we install them and our team maintains them.
At the same time, we maintain the strong, SmartLabs technical support structure that lets scientists focus on the science.
Overall, we enable our clients to seamlessly scale and adapt to match the rapid pace and complexity of modern science, so that they can harness the power of their scientific innovations – which will help future-proof not just our industry, but the health and well-being of us all.
For more information, visit www.smartlabs.com.
