BioBusiness Accelerator aims to attract bioscience startups to MSU's Holland R&D facility

By creating the new BioBusiness Accelerator at the Michigan State University BioEconomy Institute, Lakeshore Advantage took another crucial step toward attracting bioscience startups to the region. Recruiting those businesses falls to the recently hired manager of the BioBusiness Accelerator, Randy Olinger.

Lakeshore Advantage, a driving force behind Pfizer's donation of its former research facility to MSU, indicates Pfizer invested some $9 million to renovate the facility for re-use.

Olinger, 58, a biochemist and entrepreneur, says he has worked with MSU's R&D arm a number of years through his various companies that manufactured bio products with technology developed and licensed by MSU.

One Accelerator tenant, AFID Therapeutics, is in place already. But Olinger says the 140,000-square-foot facility has plenty more room for other entrepreneurs who need some of the 25,000 square feet of laboratory space and/or can use the 30,000-square-foot Pilot Plant, its R&D staff, or its 30 chemical reactors.

"The purpose of the BioEconomy Institute has four components of activity," Olinger says.

1. The traditional research and academic mission of MSU.
2. Embedded corporate research, where industrial affiliates rent space and carry out their own research or contract with the MSU researchers on staff.
3. Use of the Pilot Plant facilities by BioBusiness Accelerator tenants or outside sources who want to scale up processes to production quantities.
4. Small business development and incubation for six to eight companies at a preferred lease rate.

"The ideal candidates for the small business incubator are companies producing products that use biobased renewable materials, have a reasonable business plan, and some protected intellectual property that will enhance their ability to successfully commercialize their products," Olinger says.

In return, those businesses will receive help establishing a lease with the Institute, assistance with landing grants and loans, and help developing business strategies, marketing plans, and indentifying investment partners.

Source: Randy Olinger, Lakeshore Advantage BioBusiness Accelerator

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].