DEVCO President Chris Paladino said he was hoping there would be five companies on board when the New Jersey Innovation Hub, powered by Portal Innovations venture, officially launched. Deep down, he said he would have been satisfied with three.
When the Hub is formally announced this week, Paladino is getting more than he could have imagined. Sixteen companies (and one association) are among the opening cohort (announced Monday morning by BINJE), many of which already are working.
Which gives Paladino and Portal the greatest get of all: Proof of concept around the HELIX project, the three-building life science community DEVCO is developing in New Brunswick.
Paladino said Portal has opened similar hubs in Providence, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and Boston. What happened in New Brunswick was different.
“They basically said the New Jersey ecosystem was ready for this,” Paladino told BINJE. “New Brunswick was ready for this. It was unmet demand.”
That demand hasn’t come close to filling the space.
Paladino said most of the founding companies are starting small — a single lab bench, a desk, or an office paired with one bench.
So …
“We’ve got plenty of room,” Paladino said.
Paladino said the Hub is nowhere near capacity, even as it already exceeds Portal’s own pace projections for the location. Other Portal locations have grown to house 80 to 90 companies over time, he said — a scale New Brunswick has room to match.
Landing companies is just the start.
Portal founder and CEO John Flavin said the broader goal is for that cohort to become the seed of a self-sustaining pipeline: New Jersey research turning into New Jersey companies, staying and growing in New Jersey.
Flavin also has been blown away by the early interest.
“Opening our doors with 16 founding member companies already committed to the community is an incredible milestone,” he said. “The response we’ve seen validates both the strength of New Jersey’s innovation ecosystem and the need for a connected national network of environments and a value-driving community intentionally built to help founders start, grow and scale transformative companies.”
The nearly 30,000-square-foot hub is located inside HELIX, the sprawling health and life sciences district in New Brunswick. The Hub is designed to support early-stage biotechnology, life sciences, health care and technology companies like those in the cohort.
Members get access to private and shared lab space, equipment, offices, conference rooms and Portal’s national network of founders, pharmaceutical partners and research institutions — it’s the kind of infrastructure that’s typically out of reach for companies this early in their life.
State officials framed the Hub as part of a broader economic development push.
Evan Weiss, CEO of the N.J. Economic Development Authority, tied the effort directly to the Sherrill administration’s innovation strategy.
“To encourage startup creation and catalyze economic growth, Gov. Mikie Sherrill is committed to ensuring that entrepreneurs have the resources and tools needed to innovate and expand in New Jersey,” he said. “The founding members of the New Jersey Innovation Hub at the HELIX will help bolster the Garden State’s leadership in innovation by supporting research, discovery, and breakthroughs in bioscience.”
Middlesex County officials pointed to two founding members in particular as proof of the hub’s pull well beyond state lines.
PharmaMedic came to New Jersey from overseas, while Materium Technologies relocated from California — both, according to Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ronald Rios, a direct result of the county’s international marketing efforts.
“The Innovation Hub at H-1 will be the hotbed of new breakthroughs in bioscience and a catalyst for economic growth in this region,” Rios said. “Through the Middlesex County Office of Business Engagement, we attracted an international company, PharmaMedic, alongside a California-based innovator, Materium Technologies, as founding members.”
Among the founding companies themselves, the appeal was less about geography and more about the ecosystem the hub offers.
So said Scott Kachlany, co-founder and chief scientist of Larada Therapeutics.
“As a growing biotechnology company, being part of an ecosystem that combines laboratory infrastructure with industry relationships and collaboration opportunities is incredibly valuable,” he said. “We’re excited to join the New Jersey Innovation Hub and be part of a community focused on advancing innovation across life sciences and health care.”
A formal event celebrating the success of the Hub is being planned for September. By then, figure on more than just 16 companies being present.
“We’ll be adding more this summer,” Paladino said.
Here’s a look at the companies in the first cohort. They are joined by BioNJ, the leading life science association in the state, which is taking office space.
- Commoner AI: It focuses on workflow automation for companies of all sizes and scale;
- DrRx.ai: AI platform giving health systems real-time visibility into patient medications across care transitions;
- Favorite Pharma: Precision medicine oncology therapies, including pancreatic and colorectal cancers;
- Guidant Therapeutics: Next-generation immune therapies for cancer;
- Larada Therapeutics: Treatments for rare ocular diseases with no currently approved therapies;
- LeagueMed, LLC: Investment platform connecting health care professionals to MedTech and health IT opportunities;
- Materium Technologies: Sustainable, high-performance nanocomposite films using machine learning;
- PFA Solve: PFAS detection, capture and destruction technology;
- PharmaMedic, LLC: Medical, regulatory and product development consulting for pharma and biotech companies;
- Phase 1 Solutions: Hands-on drug development support for early-phase clinical trials;
- PumpKin Baby: A breastmilk preservative device that also assesses nutritional quality of frozen human milk;
- Sampled: Helping organizations unlock the value of biological samples and data for research;
- Scarlet TCR: Engineered T cell therapy targeting HPV;
- TangGene: Tissue-specific CD8 regulatory T cell therapies for autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis;
- Thrive Genetics: Genomics-based addiction care, including earlier risk detection and personalized treatment;
- Ubuntu Research: Clinical strategy, trial design and operational support for early-stage biotechs.
The cohort, which will work under the direction of Sangeetha Ramsagar, the inaugural executive director.
