Imperial breaks ground at new Babraham facility

Representatives from College, Abzena, and BBT came together for the ground-breaking.

Imperial marked the start of construction of new facilities to support spin out and scale up companies with a ground-breaking ceremony on 15 December.

The new facility, which will be based at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, will support science- and technology-based companies striving to build businesses that originated with research from universities and increase their impact. 

The new facilities will complement Imperial’s existing London facilities, including its new research and innovation district in White City where the Translation and Innovation Hub is set to open in 2016. 

Professor David Gann CBE, Vice President (Development & Innovation) at Imperial College London, said:At Imperial, we have long recognised that to tackle global challenges we need our scientists, engineers, medics and entrepreneurs to work together. That’s why we are committed to creating collaborative environments for multi-disciplinary teams to develop the ideas needed to solve seemingly intractable problems. And why we need to create the facilities for them to test new concepts and accelerate the growth of innovative businesses to put them into practice.”

“Our investment at Babraham builds on existing work at White City, strengthening our ability to support spin-outs and scale-ups by providing the space, facilities and expertise that they need to thrive.”

Cutting edge

Imperial’s Babraham facility will be managed by Imperial College ThinkSpace, a provider of high quality laboratory and office workspaces to companies at every stage of their growth.

The first tenant in the Babraham facility will be Abzena plc, a life sciences group providing services and technologies enabling the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products.

Artist's impression of the new facility at Babraham

The new facility will allow Abzena’s scientists and support teams in the UK to co-locate, providing a cutting-edge R&D environment to support the work that the group undertakes for its partners, and for itself, to broaden the range of technologies that it provides.

Abzena’s subsidiary company, PolyTherics, which specialises in antibody drug conjugation technologies, was established with intellectual property from Imperial College London and received support and investment from Imperial Innovations, the technology commercialisation and investment group which started as Imperial College London's technology transfer office. Imperial Innovations remains one of the largest shareholders in Abzena following its public listing on AIM in July 2014.

Dr Eulian Roberts, who leads the project for Imperial College ThinkSpace, said: Our Babraham development represents a significant expansion in the support we offer to fast-growing and high-impact businesses – not just from Imperial, but from universities and research institutes worldwide.

“Imperial knows how to create value from ideas, and we look forward to using our expertise at Babraham to support Abzena and other first-rate businesses.”

Derek Jones, CEO of Babraham Bioscience Technologies Limited, said: We are delighted that Imperial College London has chosen the Babraham Research Campus, located at the heart of the Cambridge life-science cluster, as a complementary site to that which they are developing at White City. 

“The Babraham Research Campus is a co-location of 60 start-up and scale-up life sciences businesses with academic research from the Babraham Institute.  I am sure that being part of our active community of scientist and entrepreneurs, a network which extends beyond the campus itself, will provide a fertile and rewarding location for the companies that Imperial wish to bring to the site.

Dr John Burt, CEO of Abzena commented:This new facility will bring our UK functions together under one roof. The expanded space with high quality labs will enable us to continue our rapid pace of growth.

“Imperial’s investment in this state-of-the-art facility demonstrates its support for the expansion of the UK life sciences sector as a whole and the strength of Cambridge as an innovation hub for the biopharmaceutical sector.”