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Rutgers Opens New Lab and Commercialization Center at EDA North Brunswick Facility

North Brunswick, N.J. (April 25, 2005) - Rutgers University and New Jersey state officials today dedicated a building that will help speed development of scientific discoveries in the growing fields of wireless data networking, high-density electric energy storage, and pharmaceutical discovery and development.
Rutgers constructed the facility with $3.7 million in financing from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) adjacent to an existing structure on the EDA's Technology Centre of New Jersey campus on Route 1, here. Located a mile south of the university's Cook College campus, the facility shares building space with the EDA's Commercialization Center for Innovative Technologies, a life science and technology incubator for New Jersey entrepreneurs.
Called the Rutgers Technology Center II, the 26,000-square-foot facility will house advanced development laboratories where university researchers will collaborate with technical experts in startup ventures, established corporations and government agencies. Together they will define new capabilities for wireless computer and cell phone networks, invent lightweight yet powerful energy sources for products ranging from body implants to hybrid cars, and formulate targeted drug therapies to relieve chronic diseases.
"This facility brings together a critical mass of people and resources to help propel Rutgers' technology assets - knowledge and patents - into the private sector," said Michael Breton, associate vice president for research and sponsored programs. "The size and scope of our lab space here are the most obvious benefits, but just as important are the location and our partnership with the state. We're close to the university, easily accessible to collaborators from other parts of New Jersey and beyond, and by setting up shop alongside other EDA-supported ventures, we help define and strengthen the 'Innovation Zone' concept to boost New Jersey's technology economy."
"The partnership we are celebrating today is the backbone to the Innovation Zone concept," said EDA Chief Executive Officer Caren S. Franzini. "This expansion project is a great example of how higher education, public and private sectors can work in partnership to promote the development of new technologies, strengthen our state's scientific community, and create high paying jobs."
The EDA created technology neighborhoods known as Innovation Zones in Camden, the greater New Brunswick area and Newark that encompass state universities, research institutions and related businesses. These Innovation Zones are designed to spur collaborative efforts and encourage the rapid transfer of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace. Enhanced financial incentives are available to eligible businesses locating in these zones. Each zone features a commercialization facility to provide specifically designed office and lab space for start-ups. Innovation Zones are a collaborative state effort involving the EDA, New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology and other state agencies.
Three Rutgers-affiliated groups will move into the North Brunswick facility during the coming weeks: the Wireless Information Networking Laboratory (WINLAB), the Energy Storage Research Group (ESRG) and Provid Pharmaceuticals. All presently occupy smaller quarters in Piscataway, with WINLAB on the Rutgers' Busch campus and the other two at the Rutgers Technology Center I on Knightsbridge Road. Another Rutgers-supported venture housed at Tech Center I, Polymerix Corporation, will become the sole tenant there and expand into space vacated by ESRG and Provid.
The crown jewels of Tech Center II will be WINLAB's National Science Foundation sponsored "ORBIT Radio Grid Testbed", a laboratory with 400 radio transceivers to test ways for mobile computing devices such as laptops and PDAs to exchange data faster and more efficiently, and a dry room for testing new battery chemicals and structures at a few percent relative humidity. Both facilities are among a handful nationwide that provide these kinds of capabilities. In their previous buildings, both groups had smaller, more limited versions of these facilities.
The third group in Tech Center II, Provid Pharmaceuticals, is a drug discovery company providing collaborative services to industry and academic groups. Its work includes medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, lead optimization and peptide mimetics. Provid has programs and compounds in preclinical stages for autoimmune diseases. Rutgers holds a minority interest in Provid.
The Tech Center II facility will include office and conference space for faculty, postdoctoral and graduate student researchers, administrative staff and visiting collaborators. Plans include equipping the building with instrumentation, such as large spectroscopy equipment, that can be shared among the Rutgers groups and tenants in the EDA's Commercialization Center for Innovative Technologies.