3D bioprinter maker is latest entrepreneurial company to locate at Pennovation.
Media Contact: Jennifer Rizzi, Director, Communications, Facilities & Real Estate Services, 215.573.6107, rizzi@upenn.edu
February 23, 2017
The University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services announced today that BioBots is joining the Pennovation Center, the University’s new business, technology and laboratory incubator that opened in fall 2016. They are among a growing number of biotech companies to sign on at the Pennovation Center, leasing both lab space and an Inventor Garage.
BioBots, founded by two Penn graduates, makes 3D bioprinters that create human tissue and bone. The desktop-sized, reasonably priced device makes 3D bioprinting accessible to just about any lab.
Recognition for this emergent company includes Inc. Magazine placing them on the list of “The 9 Most Innovative Startups of 2016, and Inc.’s “30under30,” Forbes “30under30 – Manufacturing & Industry,” and Business Insider “100: The Creators” in 2016.
Danny Cabrera and Ricky Solorzano were drawn together while at Penn by a shared dream to make it easy for others to engineer 3D biology. They founded BioBots in 2014 and now are a team of nine.
"We are excited to move our headquarters to Pennovation and be part of this inventive new community,” says Solorzano. “This space has the unique combination of Penn Engineering's robots on the third floor, brand new biology labs on the second, and a group of hustler entrepreneurs on the first. We are eager to see the space grow, and looking forward to being a part of it."
“The shared wet lab spaces in the Pennovation Center are unique here in the Philadelphia area and in entrepreneurial settings in general,” said Anne Papageorge, Vice President, Facilities and Real Estate Services at Penn. “The second floor wet lab space hosts more than 30 researchers who need a lab bench for exploring new ideas in a startup and entrepreneurial setting.”
Start-ups and inventors can take customizable lab leases (for six months or longer) and get access to typical wet lab facilities like glass wash and sterilization centers, as well as safety measures including security systems, emergency eye wash and air change stations.
By leasing an Inventor Garage at the Pennovation Center, BioBots increases its workspace beyond the lab bench configuration. Each Garage provides start-ups with space for research, development and prototyping, and features roll-up doors facing outwards to a new landscaped lawn. BioBots is taking one of five contiguous garages along the building’s eastern façade — evoking the beginning of some of the world’s most famous technology companies in garages.
As members of the coworking community at the Pennovation Center, BioBots staff can take advantage of membership benefits and all that the shared space has to offer: multiple community areas reserved for events and programs, and other activities that foster collaboration among faculty, students, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate and economic development partners.
About The Pennovation Center
The Pennovation Center is a 58,000 square-foot three-story facility designed for start-up companies, entrepreneurs, and inventors looking to be part of a unique community of innovators, and includes a full service technology incubator; basic wet and dry laboratories; private offices, Inventor Garages, as well as a coworking space for up to 200 members, operated by Benjamin’s Desk. It opened in October 2016 as the centerpiece of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pennovation Works, a 23-acre development adjacent to the University campus on the southern bank of the Schuylkill River providing facilities and amenities to bridge intellectual and entrepreneurial initiatives among University researchers, private sector innovators, and start-ups.
Owned by the University, and operated by its Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services, Pennovation Works houses research labs from Penn’s schools of Veterinary Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Design, and start-up companies such as Qualcomm Philadelphia Research Lab, Netronix, and Novapeutics.
Visit pennovation.upenn.edu and follow Pennovation Works on Facebook, @Pennovation on Twitter, and @pennovationworks on Instagram.
Learn more about Biobots at biobots.io and follow them on Twitter @BioBots.
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