By Bethanie Glover, ffu4bm@virginia.edu
The commonwealth’s biotechnology and innovation footprint is expanding, thanks to an award from the state’s GO Virginia economic development program and a close partnership between the University of Virginia and CvilleBioHub. And the Director of McIntire’s M.S. in Commerce Biotechnology Track and Shumway Business Health Science Fellow, Professor Nikki Hastings, will be there to help steward the project.
GO Virginia has approved “Project VITAL: Virginia Innovations and Technology Advancements in Life Sciences,” with a $14.3 million funding package award to three Virginia biotech accelerator organizations, adding a vital business component to the state’s existing biotech ecosystem to bolster the success of high-potential, early-stage life sciences companies.
Each organization is collaborating with nearby research universities to build on biotech research and expansion in their regions. CvilleBioHub, a regional industry-led organization co-founded and led by Hastings as its Executive Director, received $4.3 million of the award. In partnership with UVA to establish the region’s first laboratory accelerator, CvilleBioHub will welcome University President Jim Ryan, Darden School of Business Professor of Business Administration Mike Lenox, and other impactful figures for its ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 25, 2025, at North Fork, a UVA Discovery Park.
Hastings explains that the accelerator will attract, build, and prepare promising life sciences companies for commercialization of human health innovation in therapeutics, medical devices, tools, and digital health aids to solve unmet needs in large markets.
“GO Virginia’s award represents a very major opportunity to support UVA life sciences startups by offering top expertise, shared equipment and space, and programming to achieve increased success,” says Hastings, a 2009 Ph.D. graduate of UVA’s Biomedical Engineering program who has led CvilleBioHub since 2018 and joined the Commerce School in the fall of 2021.
“Our organization is dedicated to bringing biotechnology research goals to life, and this partnership with UVA is a game-changer for promoting the growth of the biotech industry in Charlottesville and the commonwealth,” she notes.
The University will supplement the $4.3 million award with a $750,000, three-year lease for a state-of-the-art wet lab space. An additional $100,000 from UVA’s recently established entrepreneurship initiative, UVA Innovates, will support the accelerator’s programming.
Shared equipment and space in the state-of-the-art wet lab will support emerging life sciences startups. (Contributed image)
The total project funding exceeds $7.5 million, with additional support from private donors and economic development agencies in Albemarle County and Charlottesville. The collaborative support demonstrates the benefits of public-private partnerships to generate new jobs, improve lives through innovative research and treatment, and strengthen the local economy.
The Commonwealth BioAccelerator and similar Project VITAL accelerators across the state will build on a $112 million state investment in research institutions since late 2023. That investment included $46.5 million from the general fund for UVA’s Manning Institute of Biotechnology, which is in addition to the state’s original investment of $50 million for the institute.
Collaborative space will bolster the success of life sciences entrepreneurs. (Contributed image)
“Creating new space of a similar caliber to what exists at North Fork would [normally] take years, and we are so excited to initiate this progress now. It’s exciting,” Hastings says. “Having real companies developing real products right here in the area has long been the goal of CvilleBioHub, and now, this new accelerator project, and its integration with UVA, has the potential to create tremendous opportunities for students in the M.S. in Commerce Biotechnology Track.”
Hastings sees that educational and professional promise arising from the accelerator’s proximity to Grounds as a game-changer.
“Typically, we take students on treks to cities to have a firsthand look at biotech companies in action, and now we can take them up the street,” says Hastings, emphasizing that students will have unprecedented access to both industry professionals and the cutting-edge biotech that they are developing. “It not only enhances their academic journey but also positions them for successful careers in the biotech industry. We already have a success story of a student who landed a job with a local company post-graduation, and I expect stories like that to continue to unfold.”
This story was originally published on UVA Today Jan. 15, 2025.
