UTA a sponsor of Dallas’ newest biotech initiative
The University of Texas at Arlington is a gold-level sponsor for the newly opened Biolabs at Pegasus Park, a state-of-the-art co-working facility for biotech startups.
Representatives of UTA’s Office of Research attended the Biolabs ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 22 to celebrate new opportunities for collaboration among the University’s researchers and entrepreneurs and the North Texas biotech industry. As a benefit of UTA’s sponsorship, students, faculty and staff will be able to participate in Biolabs’ events, seminars and networking designed for the region’s biotech entrepreneurs.
James Grover, interim vice president for research, said the facility’s opening marks a turning point in the University’s efforts to transfer groundbreaking research to the marketplace.
“UTA is privileged to support Biolabs’ launch in North Texas, and we look forward to utilizing its cutting-edge technological and entrepreneurial resources,” Grover said. “Biolabs’ offerings could be instrumental to the University’s ability to assist our researchers as they transition their innovations to industry applications.”
Teri Schultz, director of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, said the collaboration will open new pathways to develop UTA technologies to meet real-world needs.
“More and more investors are looking at UTA as a source of groundbreaking ideas and technologies to meet DFW’s growing health care challenges,” Schultz said. “Through Biolabs, UTA innovators will gain access to laboratories, shared equipment and community and industry partners to advance their technologies and increase opportunities for investment in their companies.”
As a Carnegie R-1 and Texas Tier One institution, UTA endeavors to improve the world through the relentless pursuit of game-changing research and discovery. Its state-of-the-art, $125 million Science & Engineering Innovation & Research building opened in 2018, ushering in a new era of life and health science discovery focused on interdisciplinary research around major health science challenges such as brain health, cancer, cardiovascular health, healthy aging and rehabilitative medicine.
At the University of Texas at Arlington Research Institute, the Division of Biomedical Technologies focuses on developing clinically relevant devices and systems that can be utilized by health care providers as well as patients to enhance diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation and preventive care.
UTA’s three-year sponsorship of Biolabs was made possible by a charitable donation from Jon Weidanz, associate vice president for research, professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation and director of Biotechnology and Systems Biology for the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics (MICHI), and his wife Debra Wawro Weidanz, alumna of the Department of Electrical Engineering and former CEO of Abexxa Biologics Inc.
“This is a big moment in North Texas. A number of parties have come together and made a significant investment to train biotech entrepreneurs and bring them together with the infrastructure and investors they need to thrive,” Weidanz said. “We wanted UTA to benefit from this important milestone and gain access to Biolabs’ newest location right here in our own backyard.”
Weidanz said the sponsorship is a way to show the world that it should pay attention to the startups that emerge from UTA.
BioLabs at Pegasus Park, a new, fully equipped, 37,000-square-foot flexible life science co-working facility offering shared and private laboratory and office spaces for early-stage scientific ventures, is strategically located in the heart of Dallas’ rapidly expanding innovation district. Biolabs will contribute to the building of the already thriving startup community in North Texas and position Dallas as the next major hub for biotech and health care innovation.