North Carolina incubator adds wet labs

The Babcock Demon Incubator at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., has added off-site wet labs to its host of client offerings.

The mixed-use incubator added the labs in response to a community need for built-out wet lab space, says Director Tom Clarkson. The labs are located in a building at the Piedmont Triad Research Park — owned by the university — about 10 minutes from the main incubator facility, which is on the main WFU campus.

Wet lab clients have the option to lease office space in the main incubator, but Clarkson says they might not be interested. "Many clients see the office space as the least valuable thing we do," he says. "Our networking and business support services, and the wet labs, are increasingly where the value is."

The 780-square-foot room can accommodate six companies, which will utilize assigned areas within the shared space. Two established incubator clients are leasing some of the space, and Clarkson is about to sign two more.

The incubator does not provide staff at the lab facility; clients must visit the main incubator for business support services.

The Babcock Demon Incubator has 12 clients (including the two using the new wet labs). Clarkson says the incubator typically sees three types of clients: businesses run by students coming out of WFU's MBA program, community entrepreneurs and university researchers. Its client mix is reflective of that, including a seed-stage venture capital company, a board game company, a company based on regenerative medicine technology, a value-added agriculture company, and a company that has created a wireless patient monitoring system.

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