the research lab company

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We run to, not from, the world’s biggest health challenges.

The journey to discovery is guided by science – and inspired by patients

We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. The path to discovery is often unclear, but we are tireless in seeking solutions for some of the world’s most difficult health challenges.

Our work in numbers

people employed in research and development

invested in R&D in 2023

Our areas of focus

We focus on scientific innovation to deliver medicines and vaccines that may help millions of people around the world.

Our team of researchers and scientists are pushing the boundaries of cancer research to discover more effective anticancer therapies.

Our work in oncology

Vaccines are one of the greatest public health success stories – and we’ve been discovering, developing, supplying and delivering vaccines to help prevent disease for over 130 years.

Our work in vaccines

Infectious diseases

Our focus has always been on the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world.

Our work in infectious diseases

Cardio-metabolic disorders

We have a long history of making an impact in cardio-metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Our work in cardio-metabolic disorders

Discovery & development

We follow the science where we can make the greatest difference, now and in the future.

More about discovery and development

We address the world’s most difficult health challenges, following leading-edge science

Step inside Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) where our quest to save and improve lives through research and development begins

We’re focused on inventing new medicines and vaccines to help more people

Our focus on breakthrough science is working

Clinical trials

Our progress is due in large part to the important and tough scientific questions we set out to answer with our trials and collaborations. We are grateful to the thousands of volunteers who participate in our clinical trials — making this all possible.

Our commitment to patients is unwavering

As long as there are still patients in hospitals, doctors and nurses desperate to add years to the lives of their patients, and a world where treatments aren’t accessible to all, we will be here, fighting with all we have to deliver more, sooner.

Discovery starts here

Our scientists are applying the latest groundbreaking research technologies and revolutionizing how we discover and develop medicines and vaccines

Taking on Zaire ebolavirus

How science and innovation fuel our efforts to help combat a rare but potentially deadly disease

Next: Taking on Zaire ebolavirus

Teaming up with Eisai to help fight cancer

How we're leveraging each other’s unique strengths to help advance cancer research

Next: Teaming up with Eisai to help fight cancer

How Merck scientists are driving next-generation cancer research

Our scientists are accelerating research by looking to improve anti-tumor immune response, targeting specific cancer cells and helping inhibit cancer growth

Next: How Merck scientists are driving next-generation cancer research

In our commitment to R&D, the numbers speak for themselves

We follow the science where we can make the greatest difference

Next: In our commitment to R&D, the numbers speak for themselves

Our Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings report

Merck’s (NYSE: MRK) Q4 and full-year 2023 results reflect sustained growth across oncology and vaccines. Our company announced Q4 worldwide sales of $14.6 billion, an increase of 6% from Q4 2022. Full-year 2023 worldwide sales were $60.1 billion, an increase of 1% from full-year 2022. ​ “2023 was another very strong year for Merck. I am extremely pleased […]

Next: Our Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings report

Safety and quality go hand in hand

Protecting animal health

Our Animal Health business is dedicated to preserving and improving the health, well-being and performance of animals and the people who care for them.

Related links

Business development & licensing

We work with many partners, from early-stage science to clinical-stage programs, to deliver life-changing therapies.

Find our latest financials, events & presentations, news, stock information, and contacts

We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company.

Forward-looking statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA

This website of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline candidates that the candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov). No Duty to Update The information contained in this website was current as of the date presented. The company assumes no duty to update the information to reflect subsequent developments. Consequently, the company will not update the information contained in the website and investors should not rely upon the information as current or accurate after the presentation date.

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Research Laboratory  

by Daniel Watch and Deepa Tolat Perkins + Will

Within This Page

Building attributes, emerging issues, relevant codes and standards, additional resources.

Research Laboratories are workplaces for the conduct of scientific research. This WBDG Building Type page will summarize the key architectural, engineering, operational, safety, and sustainability considerations for the design of Research Laboratories.

The authors recognize that in the 21st century clients are pushing project design teams to create research laboratories that are responsive to current and future needs, that encourage interaction among scientists from various disciplines, that help recruit and retain qualified scientists, and that facilitates partnerships and development. As such, a separate WBDG Resource Page on Trends in Lab Design has been developed to elaborate on this emerging model of laboratory design.

A. Architectural Considerations

Over the past 30 years, architects, engineers, facility managers, and researchers have refined the design of typical wet and dry labs to a very high level. The following identifies the best solutions in designing a typical lab.

Lab Planning Module

The laboratory module is the key unit in any lab facility. When designed correctly, a lab module will fully coordinate all the architectural and engineering systems. A well-designed modular plan will provide the following benefits:

Flexibility —The lab module, as Jonas Salk explained, should "encourage change" within the building. Research is changing all the time, and buildings must allow for reasonable change. Many private research companies make physical changes to an average of 25% of their labs each year. Most academic institutions annually change the layout of 5 to 10% of their labs. See also WBDG Productive—Design for the Changing Workplace .

• Expansion —The use of lab planning modules allows the building to adapt easily to needed expansions or contractions without sacrificing facility functionality.

A common laboratory module has a width of approximately 10 ft. 6 in. but will vary in depth from 20–30 ft. The depth is based on the size necessary for the lab and the cost-effectiveness of the structural system. The 10 ft. 6 in. dimension is based on two rows of casework and equipment (each row 2 ft. 6 in. deep) on each wall, a 5 ft. aisle, and 6 in. for the wall thickness that separates one lab from another. The 5 ft. aisle width should be considered a minimum because of the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) .

Two-Directional Lab Module —Another level of flexibility can be achieved by designing a lab module that works in both directions. This allows the casework to be organized in either direction. This concept is more flexible than the basic lab module concept but may require more space. The use of a two-directional grid is beneficial to accommodate different lengths of run for casework. The casework may have to be moved to create a different type or size of workstation.

Three-Dimensional Lab Module —The three-dimensional lab module planning concept combines the basic lab module or a two-directional lab module with any lab corridor arrangement for each floor of a building. This means that a three-dimensional lab module can have a single-corridor arrangement on one floor, a two-corridor layout on another, and so on. To create a three-dimensional lab module:

• A basic or two-directional lab module must be defined.
• All vertical risers must be fully coordinated. (Vertical risers include fire stairs, elevators, restrooms, and shafts for utilities.)
• The mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems must be coordinated in the ceiling to work with the multiple corridor arrangements.

Lab Planning Concepts

The relationship of the labs, offices, and corridor will have a significant impact on the image and operations of the building. See also WBDG Functional—Account for Functional Needs .

Do the end users want a view from their labs to the exterior, or will the labs be located on the interior, with wall space used for casework and equipment?

Some researchers do not want or cannot have natural light in their research spaces. Special instruments and equipment, such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) apparatus, electron microscopes, and lasers cannot function properly in natural light. Natural daylight is not desired in vivarium facilities or in some support spaces, so these are located in the interior of the building.

Zoning the building between lab and non-lab spaces will reduce costs. Labs require 100% outside air while non-lab spaces can be designed with re-circulated air, like an office building .

Adjacencies with corridors can be organized with a single, two corridor (racetrack), or a three corridor scheme. There are number of variations to organize each type. Illustrated below are three ways to organize a single corridor scheme:

Single corridor lab design with labs and office adjacent to each other.

Single corridor lab design with offices clustered together at the end and in the middle.

Single corridor lab design with office clusters accessing main labs directly.

• Open labs vs. closed labs. An increasing number of research institutions are creating "open" labs to support team-based work. The open lab concept is significantly different from that of the "closed" lab of the past, which was based on accommodating the individual principle investigator. In open labs, researchers share not only the space itself but also equipment, bench space, and support staff. The open lab format facilitates communication between scientists and makes the lab more easily adaptable for future needs. A wide variety of labs—from wet biology and chemistry labs, to engineering labs, to dry computer science facilities—are now being designed as open labs.

Flexibility

In today's lab, the ability to expand, reconfigure, and permit multiple uses has become a key concern. The following should be considered to achieve this:

Flexible Lab Interiors

Equipment zones—These should be created in the initial design to accommodate equipment, fixed, or movable casework at a later date.

Generic labs

Mobile casework—This can be comprised of mobile tables and mobile base cabinets. It allows researchers to configure and fit out the lab based on their needs as opposed to adjusting to pre-determined fixed casework.

Mobile casework

Mobile base cabinet Photo Credit: Kewaunee Scientific Corp.

Flexible partitions—These can be taken down and put back up in another location, allowing lab spaces to be configured in a variety of sizes.

Overhead service carriers—These are hung from the ceiling. They can have utilities like piping, electric, data, light fixtures, and snorkel exhausts. They afford maximum flexibility as services are lifted off the floor, allowing free floor space to be configured as needed.

Flexible Engineering Systems

Lab designed with overhead connects and disconnects allow for flexibility and fast hook up of equipment.

Labs should have easy connects/disconnects at walls and ceilings to allow for fast and affordable hook up of equipment. See also WBDG Productive—Integrate Technological Tools .

The Engineering systems should be designed such that fume hoods can be added or removed.

Space should be allowed in the utility corridors, ceilings, and vertical chases for future HVAC, plumbing, and electric needs.

Building Systems Distribution Concepts

Interstitial space.

An interstitial space is a separate floor located above each lab floor. All services and utilities are located here where they drop down to service the lab below. This system has a high initial cost but it allows the building to accommodate change very easily without interrupting the labs.

Conventional design vs. interstitial design Image Credit: Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca Partnership

Service Corridor

Lab spaces adjoin a centrally located corridor where all utility services are located. Maintenance personnel are afforded constant access to main ducts, shutoff valves, and electric panel boxes without having to enter the lab. This service corridor can be doubled up as an equipment/utility corridor where common lab equipment like autoclaves, freezer rooms, etc. can be located.

B. Engineering Considerations

Typically, more than 50% of the construction cost of a laboratory building is attributed to engineering systems. Hence, the close coordination of these ensures a flexible and successfully operating lab facility. The following engineering issues are discussed here: structural systems, mechanical systems, electrical systems, and piping systems. See also WBDG Functional—Ensure Appropriate Product/Systems Integration .

Structural Systems

Once the basic lab module is determined, the structural grid should be evaluated. In most cases, the structural grid equals 2 basic lab modules. If the typical module is 10 ft. 6 in. x 30 ft., the structural grid would be 21 ft. x 30 ft. A good rule of thumb is to add the two dimensions of the structural grid; if the sum equals a number in the low 50's, then the structural grid would be efficient and cost-effective.

Typical lab structural grid.

Key design issues to consider in evaluating a structural system include:

• Framing depth and effect on floor-to-floor height;
• Ability to coordinate framing with lab modules;
• Ability to create penetrations for lab services in the initial design as well as over the life of the building;
• Potential for vertical or horizontal expansion;
• Vibration criteria; and

Mechanical Systems

The location of main vertical supply/exhaust shafts as well as horizontal ductwork is very crucial in designing a flexible lab. Key issues to consider include: efficiency and flexibility, modular design, initial costs , long-term operational costs , building height and massing , and design image .

The various design options for the mechanical systems are illustrated below:

Shafts in the middle of the building

Shafts at the end of the building

Exhaust at end and supply in the middle

Multiple internal shafts

Shafts on the exterior

See also WBDG High Performance HVAC .

Electrical Systems

Three types of power are generally used for most laboratory projects:

Normal power circuits are connected to the utility supply only, without any backup system. Loads that are typically on normal power include some HVAC equipment, general lighting, and most lab equipment.

Emergency power is created with generators that will back up equipment such as refrigerators, freezers, fume hoods, biological safety cabinets, emergency lighting, exhaust fans, animal facilities, and environmental rooms. Examples of safe and efficient emergency power equipment include distributed energy resources (DER) , microturbines , and fuel cells .

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is used for data recording, certain computers, microprocessor-controlled equipment, and possibly the vivarium area. The UPS can be either a central unit or a portable system, such as distributed energy resources (DER) , microturbines , fuel cells , and building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) .

See also WBDG Productive—Assure Reliable Systems and Spaces .

The following should be considered:

• Load estimation
• Site distribution
• Power quality
• Management of electrical cable trays/panel boxes
• User expectations
• Illumination levels
• Lighting distribution-indirect, direct, combination
• Luminaire location and orientation-lighting parallel to casework and lighting perpendicular to casework
• Telephone and data systems

Piping Systems

There are several key design goals to strive for in designing laboratory piping systems:

• Provide a flexible design that allows for easy renovation and modifications.
• Provide appropriate plumbing systems for each laboratory based on the lab programming.
• Provide systems that minimize energy usage .
• Provide equipment arrangements that minimize downtime in the event of a failure.
• Locate shutoff valves where they are accessible and easily understood.
• Accomplish all of the preceding goals within the construction budget.

C. Operations and Maintenance

Cost savings.

The following cost saving items can be considered without compromising quality and flexibility:

• Separate lab and non-lab zones.
• Try to design with standard building components instead of customized components. See also WBDG Functional—Ensure Appropriate Product/Systems Integration .
• Identify at least three manufacturers of each material or piece of equipment specified to ensure competitive bidding for the work.
• Locate fume hoods on upper floors to minimize ductwork and the cost of moving air through the building.
• Evaluate whether process piping should be handled centrally or locally. In many cases it is more cost-effective to locate gases, in cylinders, at the source in the lab instead of centrally.
• Create equipment zones to minimize the amount of casework necessary in the initial construction.
• Provide space for equipment (e.g., ice machine) that also can be shared with other labs in the entry alcove to the lab. Shared amenities can be more efficient and cost-effective.
• Consider designating instrument rooms as cross-corridors, saving space as well as encouraging researchers to share equipment.
• Design easy-to-maintain, energy-efficient building systems. Expose mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems for easy maintenance access from the lab.
• Locate all mechanical equipment centrally, either on a lower level of the building or on the penthouse level.
• Stack vertical elements above each other without requiring transfers from floor to floor. Such elements include columns, stairs, mechanical closets, and restrooms.

D. Lab and Personnel Safety and Security

Protecting human health and life is paramount, and safety must always be the first concern in laboratory building design. Security-protecting a facility from unauthorized access-is also of critical importance. Today, research facility designers must work within the dense regulatory environment in order to create safe and productive lab spaces. The WBDG Resource Page on Security and Safety in Laboratories addresses all these related concerns, including:

• Laboratory classifications: dependent on the amount and type of chemicals in the lab;
• Containment devices: fume hoods and bio-safety cabinets;
• Levels of bio-safety containment as a design principle;
• Radiation safety;
• Employee safety: showers, eyewashes, other protective measures; and
• Emergency power.

See also WBDG Secure / Safe Branch , Threat/Vulnerability Assessments and Risk Analysis , Balancing Security/Safety and Sustainability Objectives , Air Decontamination , and Electrical Safety .

E. Sustainability Considerations

The typical laboratory uses far more energy and water per square foot than the typical office building due to intensive ventilation requirements and other health and safety concerns. Therefore, designers should strive to create sustainable , high performance, and low-energy laboratories that will:

• Minimize overall environmental impacts;
• Protect occupant safety ; and
• Optimize whole building efficiency on a life-cycle basis.

For more specific guidance, see WBDG Sustainable Laboratory Design ; EPA and DOE's Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) , a voluntary program dedicated to improving the environmental performance of U.S. laboratories; WBDG Sustainable Branch and Balancing Security/Safety and Sustainability Objectives .

F. Three Laboratory Sectors

There are three research laboratory sectors. They are academic laboratories, government laboratories, and private sector laboratories.

• Academic labs are primarily teaching facilities but also include some research labs that engage in public interest or profit generating research.
• Government labs include those run by federal agencies and those operated by state government do research in the public interest.
• Design of labs for the private sector , run by corporations, is usually driven by the need to enhance the research operation's profit making potential.

G. Example Design and Construction Criteria

For GSA, the unit costs for this building type are based on the construction quality and design features in the following table   . This information is based on GSA's benchmark interpretation and could be different for other owners.

LEED® Application Guide for Laboratory Facilities (LEED-AGL)—Because research facilities present a unique challenge for energy efficiency and sustainable design, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has formed the LEED-AGL Committee to develop a guide that helps project teams apply LEED credits in the design and construction of laboratory facilities. See also the WBDG Resource Page Using LEED on Laboratory Projects .

The following agencies and organizations have developed codes and standards affecting the design of research laboratories. Note that the codes and standards are minimum requirements. Architects, engineers, and consultants should consider exceeding the applicable requirements whenever possible.

• 29 CFR 1910.1450: OSHA "Occupational Exposures to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories"
• ANSI/ASSE/AIHA Z9.5 Laboratory Ventilation
• ANSI/ISEA Z358.1 Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment
• Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) Standards
• Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) 5th Edition , Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health.
• GSA PBS-P100 Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service
• Guidelines for the Laboratory Use of Chemical Carcinogens , Pub. No. 81-2385. National Institutes of Health
• NIH Design Requirements Manual , National Institutes of Health
• NFPA 30 Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code
• NFPA 45 Fire Protection for Laboratories using Chemical
• Unified Facilities Guide Specifications (UFGS) —organized by MasterFormat™ divisions, are for use in specifying construction for the military services. Several UFGS exist for safety-related topics.

Publications

• Building Type Basics for Research Laboratories , 2nd Edition by Daniel Watch. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008. ISBN# 978-0-470-16333-7.
• CRC Handbook of Laboratory Safety , 5th ed. by A. Keith Furr. CRC Press, 2000.
• Design and Planning of Research and Clinical Laboratory Facilities by Leonard Mayer. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.
• Design for Research: Principals of Laboratory Architecture by Susan Braybrooke. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993.
• Guidelines for Laboratory Design: Health and Safety Considerations , 4th Edition by Louis J. DiBerardinis, et al. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013.
• Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities by The American Institute of Architects, Center for Advanced Technology Facilities Design. Washington, DC: The American Institute of Architects, 1999.
• Handbook of Facilities Planning, Vol. 1: Laboratory Facilities by T. Ruys. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.
• Laboratories, A Briefing and Design Guide by Walter Hain. London, UK: E & FN Spon, 1995.
• Laboratory by Earl Walls Associates, May 2000.
• Laboratory Design from the Editors of R&D Magazine.
• Laboratory Design, Construction, and Renovation: Participants, Process, and Product by National Research Council, Committee on Design, Construction, and Renovation of Laboratory Facilities. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2000.
• Planning Academic Research Facilities: A Guidebook by National Science Foundation. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation, 1992.
• Research and Development in Industry: 1995-96 by National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, 1998.
• Science and Engineering Research Facilities at Colleges and Universities by National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies. Arlington, VA, 1998.
• Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) —Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, Labs21 is a voluntary program dedicated to improving the environmental performance of U.S. laboratories.

WBDG Participating Agencies

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28 Biotech Companies Bolstering Life Sciences

While biotech has long been a vital component of the global tech market, this pivotal sector has seemingly reached new heights over the past decade. And although organizations around the world have tried to rule the life sciences space, the United States remains the undisputed biotech leader. 

Biotech Companies to Know

Flatiron health.

According to reports , the nation’s life sciences sector alone generates over $112 billion in revenue. In light of biotech’s mounting economic impact, it’s no surprise that tech hubs across the country are witnessing a surge in life sciences companies , bolstering the nation’s status as a biotech epicenter.

Over the past couple years, the importance of the biotech industry has been even further amplified, as the world raced to create a COVID-19 vaccine.

While focus has been on combating COVID-19, the country’s biotech leaders continue to dedicate themselves to addressing other pressing medical issues. Backed by teams of world-renowned scientists and technologists, these organizations are addressing challenges across the healthcare spectrum. Whether they’re formulating new cancer treatments or harnessing the power of human genetics, the nation’s biotech companies are making a monumental impact on the future of medical research and drug discovery. 

We’ve rounded up the top biotech companies to give you a glimpse into the burgeoning life sciences sector.

Novo Nordisk

Location: Bagsværd, Denmark

Novo Nordisk has been around since the 1920s, and today focuses on developing treatments and pharmaceuticals for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hemophilia. The company has roughly 860 research and development employees working in the United States and is conducting clinical trials in more than four dozen countries.

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Biotech firm Asimov is a genetic design company. It uses machine learning, computer-aided design and a niche of biology known as synthetic biology — a field that redesigns existing organisms for new uses — to genetically engineer therapeutics like biologics and gene therapies. Asimov markets a platform that includes host cells, a genetic parts library, technical guides and design software for creating genetic systems in various types of cells.

Location: Menlo Park, California

GRAIL is on a mission to detect cancer at earlier stages so that it can be more easily cured. The company focuses on seeking cancer signals in the blood, guided by the belief that tumors release cell-free nucleic acids into the bloodstream, which are thought to be a direct measure of cancer and can potentially be detected before the onset of symptoms. GRAIL intends to foster a deeper understanding of cancer biology through its high-intensity sequencing assays and population-scale clinical studies.

Schrödinger, Inc.

Location:  Cambridge, Massachusetts

Schrödinger is powering drug research with its computer simulations platform. Founded in 1990, the company employs physics-based methods to evaluate chemical matter and compounds before synthesis. As a result, researchers should see faster lead discoveries, accurate property descriptions and access to large-scale molecular exploration. The company also provides integrated data and visualization tools

Location: San Diego, California

Illumina seeks to make “genomics more useful for all, for a better understanding of human health .” The company develops products for cancer research, reproductive health, genetic and rare diseases and microbial genomics.

Location:  Lexington, Massachusetts

Founded in the 18th century, Takeda is a global pharmaceutical company with a strong emphasis on research and development. The company focuses its research in several areas: oncology, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, vaccines, neuroscience and gastroenterology. In the U.S. alone, Takeda has created over 50 products and service programs that benefit patients and physicians.

Viome Life Sciences

Location:  Bellevue, Washington

Viome Life Sciences believes microbial and human gene expression are altering how biological activities and human health are connected. The company uses an mRNA platform to digitize human data to prevent, diagnose and treat chronic illnesses and diseases. Through the platform, consumers can receive personalized recommendations — like dietary restrictions and exercise plans — on how to live a healthy life.

Location: San Francisco, California

Invitae provides genetic testing services, the Invitae Digital Health platform to coordinate patient care, biopharma partnerships. Its products have applications for oncology, reproductive health, pediatrics, cardiology and pathology.

Variant Bio

Location:  Seattle, Washington

Variant Bio uses innovative sequence technology and studies the genetics of individuals with “exceptional health-related traits.” The company’s goal: to transform drug development as we know it today and, ultimately, find better ways to treat diseases.

Benchling is dedicated to speeding up life sciences research through its suite of unified applications, which are housed within the company’s life sciences research and development cloud. The cloud serves as a platform for centralizing and standardizing all R&D data, enabling users to track every workflow, automatically interlink related data and easily and quickly export data. Benchling’s applications can be used for the research of antibodies, cell therapy, proteins and peptides, gene therapy, vaccines and more.

Location: San Mateo, California

Helix created an end-to-end genomics platform in an effort to enable health systems, life sciences companies and payers to advance genomic research. The company’s platform allows users to deliver actionable genetic insights and conduct large-scale genetic analyses. Helix’s Exome+ assay is designed to facilitate the discovery and analysis of rare and novel variants, genome-wide imputation, polygenic risk score calculation, ancestry inference and more.

Charles River Laboratories

Location: Wilmington, Massachusetts

Charles River Laboratories ’ focus is on the quick, efficient and safe discovery and development of drugs and therapeutics. The company provides products and services that take its clients from the basic research stage to clinical development and commercialization. Its customers come from the pharmaceutical, biotech, agrochemical, and academic sectors.

Location: Rahway, New Jersey

Merck ’s efforts center around biopharmaceutical research for preventing and treating disease in people and animals with a focus on oncology, vaccines, infectious diseases, COVID-19, cardio-metabolic disorders and discovery and development.

Recommended Reading 40 AI in Healthcare Examples Improving the Future of Medicine

Location: New York, New York

Flatiron Health aims to reinvent cancer care by learning from the experiences of cancer patients. The company’s Flatiron HC platform can help providers with administrative tasks, matching patients to clinical trials they’re eligible for and accessing patient information whenever or wherever they need.

Imagen Technologies

Imagen Technologies is dedicated to making diagnostic care more accessible while eliminating errors in radiology. The company’s FDA-cleared Computer Assisted Detection and Diagnosis software applies AI technology to medical image analysis in an effort to improve patient outcomes.

Location: Chicago, Illinois

CancerIQ is dedicated to helping providers use genetic information to predict and prevent disease. The company provides user-friendly screening tools that allow healthcare providers to offer patients easy risk assessment questionnaires in waiting rooms and track patient outcomes over time to keep them engaged and informed. CancerIQ’s screening solution enables providers to replace long paper forms and quickly identify patients eligible for genetic counseling, genetic testing or an MRI.

 Location: Palo Alto, California

BridgeBio works in medicine development for patients who have genetic diseases and cancers with clear genetic drivers. The company’s partners have included St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Location: Chicago, Illinois 

Neurocern aims to leverage neuroinformatics and data analytics to improve the quality of life and longevity of neurological patients. The company’s technology is designed to identify different types of dementia more effectively than other forms of diagnosis. Neurocern is guided by the belief that analytics can connect siloed markets in new ways to improve long-term care outcomes and ultimately find cures for neurodegenerative diseases.

Location: Foster City, California

Notable ’s platform aims to dramatically reduce the cost and time associated with the traditional drug development process. Powered by machine learning, automation and high-throughput flow cytometry, the company’s precision medicine platform is capable of determining which drugs or drug combinations would be most effective for specific types of cancers. Notable’s mission is to change the way clinicians and prescribers select treatments for the millions of individuals suffering from hematological cancers.

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Atomwise developed deep learning technology for the discovery of structure-based small molecule drugs. The company’s AtomNet technology utilizes a statistical approach in order to extract insights from millions of experimental affinity measurements and thousands of protein structures to predict the binding of small molecules to proteins. Atomwise’s technology removes some of the physical barriers that previously limited the success of drug discovery, and has the ability to analyze a very large chemical space to identify a small subset with high specificity for synthesis and testing.

Location: Austin, Texas

Natera is a genetic testing and diagnostics company dedicated to changing how doctors and patients manage genetic disease. The company’s solutions include personalized cancer care management, health assessments for transplant patients and women’s health testing. Natera aims to deliver technology and finely-tuned workflows that drive superior clinical and analytics performance.

ATX Therapeutics

ATX Therapeutics is dedicated to helping people more easily manage chronic health conditions such as cancer and heart disease. The company offers evidence-based digital therapeutics intervention programs, which are based on individual patients’ health history, needs and abilities. ATX Therapeutics’ programs are designed to be integrated into patient lifestyles and provider workflows to deliver a fully integrated healthcare experience.

Location: Greenwood Village, Colorado

VieCure aims to make genomic-based cancer care more accessible for patients and providers. The company’s platform operates as a point-of-care clinical decision support system that combines clinical knowledge with patient data to help oncologists generate personalized treatment plans and manage patients’ care. VieCure intends for its platform to serve as a value-added extender for every oncologist, nurse, therapist and clinical researcher.

Paige seeks to transform the diagnosis and treatment of cancer with its AI-native digital pathology ecosystem. The company’s AI suite is intended to provide data-driven insights to pathologists, clinicians and pharmaceutical teams. Paige’s aim is to propel cancer care with more powerful and efficient tools for diagnosis, treatment selection and drug development.

Location: Santa Monica, California

Quantgene aims to transform the future of medicine by unlocking the deep human genome. The company’s platform combines deep genomic sequencing and AI to detect mutational patterns of disease down to a single molecule, thus helping inform early cancer detection, prediction of disease onset and non-invasive treatment monitoring. Additionally, Quantgene’s Serenity Medical Intelligence is intended to extract vital health data from patients’ DNA so they can help protect themselves from chronic diseases, drug interactions and lifestyle risks.

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Moderna is a pharmaceutical company working to use mRNA technology to develop medicines, vaccines and therapeutics. Infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune diseases have been among Moderna’s areas of focus.

Recommended Reading Topv 16 Machine Learning Companies in Healthcare

Strata Oncology

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Strata Oncology is a genomic testing company working on precision medicine for cancer patients. The company’s StrataNGS genomic profiling test is effective for smaller tumor tissue samples compared to other tests, making testing that can inform immunotherapy decisions more accessible to patients with advanced solid tumors.

Myriad Genetics

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Myriad Genetics aims to provide accurate genetic insights to improve disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The company offers multiple testing options, including MyRisk hereditary cancer risk testing and Prequel prenatal screening.

Great Companies Need Great People. That's Where We Come In.

How to Start a Lab in 2024: Tips & Resources for First-Time Founders

Last Updated on 

January 10, 2024

How to Start a Lab

Are you embarking on a scientific discovery and innovation journey? Starting a new laboratory dedicated to research and development in biotechnology or biopharmaceuticals is a bold and ambitious endeavor. Whether you're spinning out of academia , leaving an incubator, or wrapping up your accelerator program , this next stage of growth is challenging, to say the least.

With a specific focus on wet laboratories and the dynamic research within their walls, this blog post can help researchers navigate the intricacies of launching a successful lab facility.

In biotechnology, wet labs are pivotal in advancing scientific knowledge and transforming groundbreaking ideas into tangible solutions. Scientists work with biological materials, conduct experiments, and unlock new frontiers in understanding and harnessing living systems.

In this blog post, we will explore the essential elements and critical considerations for establishing a lab for biotechnology R&D. From acquiring necessary equipment and setting up the laboratory infrastructure to ensuring regulatory compliance and fostering a culture of safety; we will cover crucial aspects that lay the foundation for a thriving research environment.

Through a proactive and hands-on approach, you can cultivate an atmosphere of collaboration, innovation, and scientific excellence within your wet or dry lab. We aim to equip you with practical insights and actionable steps to kick-start your journey and set your laboratory on a path of success.

Let’s delve into the intricacies and possibilities of establishing a dynamic lab facility that drives scientific progress and fuels biotechnology and biopharmaceutical research.

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Creating Your Business Plan

Drafting a business plan is crucial to your efforts, because it not only helps to secure startup funds, but also demonstrates that you have done your market research and outlines the services you plan to provide. Your business plan should include:

• Executive Summary: Highlight the strengths of your overall plan. Show that you have completed a thorough and comprehensive market analysis. Include information about a need in your target market – and how your lab will solve it.
• Company Description: Provide a high-level overview of the elements of your business. Think of it like an extended elevator pitch. Describe your goal and unique position. You can start by considering the following questions:
• What are you researching?
• Are you developing a product? If so, is that product business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C)?
• Are you looking for a cure, or a therapeutic that better manages a disease, or something else?
• Do you need help from existing labs/big pharma?
• Market Analysis: Demonstrate knowledge of your industry and market, along with research findings and conclusions. How big is your industry currently? What is the projected growth rate? Etc.
• Organization and Management: Detail your legal and organizational structure, management profile, and qualifications of members of the board of directors. Include a description of your product or service, details about the product life cycle, status of intellectual property protection, along with current and future research and development activity. Some other questions to consider include:
• What are your long term goals, how long do you think it will take you to achieve them?
• Are you selling products/services to other labs?
• Do you provide contract research services?
• In terms of a business exit, are you planning for an acquisition/IPO? Or are you looking to grow cash flows and profits long term?
• Marketing and Sales Management: Include your marketing and sales strategy. How will you get into the market? How will you grow? What are your channels of communication and distribution?
• Funding Request: Outline your financial requirements, both current and future, covering the next five years. Support the information with historical and prospective financial information. Include an analysis of how you’ll use the requested funds.

Though this sample business plan focuses on a medical lab with services to the public, it gives you a good idea about how to adapt it to your research lab.

Lab start-ups can become expensive quickly because it’s necessary to secure lab space, get equipment, find faculty members, and so on. Luckily, there are many lab funding options available including:

The federal government offers hundreds of grant opportunities to life sciences and healthcare businesses and research programs, funded by different agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE) and more. This includes SBIR grants , STTR grants , and BARDA funding , among others.

Grants are advantageous in the sense that they provide a source of funding that does not need to be paid back. Winning a well-known grant can give your lab promotion and prestige, bringing credibility to your business.

But when you consider that the competition is fierce – given that there are so many businesses and comparatively fewer grants available, and that the application process requires spending money, it isn’t the most practical approach. Not only this, but that free money comes with conditions that must be upheld.

In some situations, grants may be renewed annually, but it’s possible that a grant you were expecting to renew will vanish at a moment’s notice. Because of this, if your lab relies too heavily on grants for operational funds, the business could collapse.

Venture Capital (VC)

Working with a VC firm may be a sound option, because it often provides a larger influx of cash than other sources can offer. There are a number of pros and cons to venture capital financing that are important to consider.

You gain access to a large amount of capital you otherwise wouldn’t have access to, and you can typically leverage the network of resources the investors are connected with. In addition, the partners at the firm may specialize in your industry, and will be able to provide you with invaluable insight or advice. And, as a board member, they may also bring even more credibility to your organization. However, one of the main drawback is that the venture capitalists who invest in your company become stakeholders, and now own a percentage of your company, earning a share of the profit and possibly making decisions outside of your control.

That said, VC investments can help you grow faster, because without that cash, you may be forced to wait a year or more before you can count on a steady stream of revenue to invest in new equipment or staff. But, your company may not be ready to grow. If you don’t quite know how you’re going to make the business profitable on its own, you could spend too much money on things that won’t help you in the long run.

You’ll have to spend a considerable amount of time (and possibly money) to get your pitch right and present to VCs to raise the funds. You may not get the deal you’re hoping for. But if you do, you’ll expand your network of people to include other business leaders and entrepreneurs who can help you succeed.

There are numerous VC firms who specialize in biotech and the life sciences . It’s worth checking each out to see whether one would be a good fit for you.

Private Investors

These are people or companies that invest their own money in your company, with the idea that your company will succeed so they earn a return on that investment. Venture capitalists are one type of private investor, but others include angel investors , friends and family, and private equity firms.

Friends and family may be eager to help you get started, but failing to honor your commitments could strain the relationship. Private equity firms aren’t generally interested in startups, but instead focus on established businesses.

Fellowships

Fellowships are essentially scholarships for people who have already earned a college degree and are seeking additional education. Often, these are graduate students who are completing their graduate program or graduate degree holders who need hyper-specialized training.

These funding awards vary widely among disciplines and are highly competitive in nature. Fellowships generally last a year, though some may last longer, and some may be renewed.

Building Your Proposal

You’ll need to prepare budgets as part of your proposals. Focus on the science, because it’s a large part of what determines whether you get funding or not. At the same time, you need to budget accordingly, factoring in the total amount per year that first-time investors can request, along with the allowable supply budget per person per year. The budget needs to match the proposed work, especially because of how competitive grants can be.

Opting to lease equipment rather than purchase it outright relieves a great deal of financial burden, and can improve your overall budget. Leasing is a non-dilutive form of financing, which means you as a shareholder retain more ownership of your company while getting the expensive equipment you need into your lab. You can make your dollars go further by paying a smaller upfront cost for the things you need to work with every day.

Leasing is also much faster than raising venture capital or borrowing from a bank, so you can quickly procure equipment without extended, drawn-out lead times. You can learn more about equipment leasing here .  

Beyond money for the lab, equipment, and staff, you’ll also want to establish funds for overhead expenses, insurance, accounting fees, and legal fees.

You’ll also want to prepare for funding sources as the lab grows. Beyond VC and grants, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers loan options for small businesses that meet certain criteria. Your area of research also influences financing opportunities in terms of the available grants.

Securing Lab Space & Procuring Equipment

At a certain point, it will make sense to find dedicated lab space for your operations. Up until this point, you're probably using a shared co-working space or operating out an incubator or academic lab. Whatever gets the job done for now. Sharing space and equipment is limiting however, once you're ready to scale.

Finding somewhere to set up shop will take time, and lab space can be costly . Renting or leasing is an excellent option until you've grown to the point it makes sense to put down some serious money on a space of your own. But, if you end up leasing lab space indefinitely, that's not a problem. Many businesses do. The cost of buying commercial space is often just too high and it can be hard to justify that kind of expenditure.

Create a check list of everything you'll need regardless of whether you're looking for a short-term rental, long-term lease, or space to purchase. Knowing your needs and requirements for operation and scaling will help you determine the best space to move into. Try to keep your costs down, whether that's a monthly payment or a mortgage. Recurring monthly expenses will add up and make a significant dent in your budget, so plan accordingly.

Once you’ve secured some lab space to operate in, and potentially hired a few key lab members, you’ll most likely be ready to procure the lab and office equipment you need to effectively operate the lab.

Depending on your area of research, you will likely need a variety of lab tools and machines , such as imaging equipment , analytical instruments , chromatography , microscopes , and more. This can mean purchasing several centrifuges, freezers, spectrometers and spectrophotometers, PCR and qPCR systems, and even high-throughput liquid handling systems. However, these costs add up, and are generally the area where you’ll spend the most money.

Opting for used equipment can be tempting, since buying new equipment can easily cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. But, used equipment comes with the risk of equipment malfunction or failure. Lab equipment auctions can provide great deals, but if the equipment fails shortly after your purchase, you’re out of luck.

Alternatively, leasing your scientific equipment offers an affordable way to set up your lab, while ensuring you have quality functional equipment, whether new or refurbished. Whether you operate a medical laboratory or a research laboratory, a lab equipment leasing program like ours ensures that machines are properly maintained and repaired in the event of a breakdown.

Additionally, because of the operating lease structure, as opposed to a capital lease structure, the monthly lease payments are potentially 100% tax deductible. (Speak to a tax advisor to determine the full implications of equipment leasing.)

The leasing approach gives you peace of mind by avoiding the hefty upfront costs associated with purchasing and by removing the headaches associated with annual service contracts.

Business Management

Any successful business, not just a lab startup, will need a team of advisors to help manage it. Beyond lab management and the lab itself, there are many other functions that must run smoothly, such as human resources, accounting, legal, and insurance.

In the beginning, it’s perfectly fine to hire outside consultants or contractors to address these needs. As the lab grows, however, it may be necessary to convert these to in-house positions. If you operate in an biotech incubator , you may have access to shared business management services.

The Hardest Part is Starting

One of the hardest parts about doing anything is starting in the first place. Founding a lab and pursuing your goals means figuring out how to translate your science, learning the ins and outs of business, making the right legal and financial decisions, managing a team of people, and so much more. Which can feel extremely daunting. But, you won’t get anywhere if you don’t start. Hopefully, this guide helps you start off on the right foot, and provides an outline of what you’ll need to get where you want to go.

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What can you do to make your new laboratory startup venture a success? We take a look at the top 10 questions everyone should ask themselves before green-lighting a new laboratory venture.

1. What is the Business Case for Your New Laboratory Startup?

Take the time to create a detailed business plan upfront — one that addresses the difficult questions — before expending scarce financial and human resources .

A good place to start is by researching the market demand and identifying the business case for your new venture.

Here are a couple of business case examples – but yours will need to be more detailed, backed up by solid technical and market research.

• To take advantage of new research/testing opportunities, such as those created by the Covid pandemic.
• Use new lab technologies to serve unmet demand in the market by out-competing/displacing other laboratories relying on older technology.

2. Who Needs Your Laboratory Services, e.g. Who is the Customer?

The next step in creating a solid laboratory business plan is to identify “ who is the customer? ”

In reality, there are often multiple answers to this question, so perhaps we should rephrase the question as “ who are the stakeholders? ”

Startup laboratories will need to identify what products and services they are offering to prospective customers in the market place.

But they will also need to treat their investors (e.g. the angel and VC firms making substantial upfront investments) as key stakeholders by delivering on the promises they have made in terms of project milestones and product and service deliveries.

3. What is the Funding Model and Return on Investment (ROI) for Your New Laboratory Project?

In normal times, commercial laboratories with a recurring revenue stream would find answering questions about funding sources and return on investment (ROI) to be fairly straightforward.

However, we don’t live in normal times right now.

The current Covid pandemic has shifted demand across many sectors of the economy, including the lab sector, which makes these economic models and investment calculations more difficult.

For example, demand for clinical healthcare testing (including Covid virus and vaccine trials testing) is up, while demand in other areas (such as petroleum well testing) is down.

This puts additional pressure on lab startups to identify viable funding sources to support the business after the initial funding runs out — by signing long-term customer contracts, obtaining multi-phase government research grants, or pursuing direct sales opportunities, such as direct sales of home testing kits sold to consumers over the internet.

It also puts greater pressure on controlling costs and justifying expenditures.

Fortunately, there are clever, cost-effective solutions available, such as efficient storage and flexible furniture options (such as mobile carts) that can help you get the most use out of your available square footage — while maximizing ROI at the same time.

Some lab startups may also benefit from taking advantage of local startup accelerators, which offer shared workspaces during the early venture stages.

4. Which Regulatory Regimes will Govern Your Laboratory Operations?

Every business is subject to some form of federal, state, or local regulations.

Broadly speaking, most of these regulations have to do with public safety; for example, does your facility meet fire regulations? Is it structurally sound? Are there enough emergency exits? etc.

In contrast, laboratory facilities tend to be highly regulated, often falling under one or more regulatory regimes that are either mandated by government agencies or set forth by industry trade groups that issue “certifications.”

The intended use of your laboratory will determine which sets of regulations or certification guidelines apply.

For example, laboratories designed for pharmaceutical or food manufacturing testing will need to comply with the FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations.

Laboratories designed to handle potentially dangerous materials are subject to even more stringent regulations. Facilities handling radioactive materials must comply with the Department of Energy regulations, while labs handling potentially dangerous biological pathogens fall under CDC biosafety regulations, which classify labs according to four biosafety levels, BSL-1 through BSL-4.

(Only a few laboratories around the world qualify for the BSL-4 rating, designated for handling the most dangerous pathogens. These labs must incorporate highly redundant safety systems, including isolated clean room chambers where lab personnel wear special PPE, such as “spacesuit” type protective garments.)

5. What Kind of Lab Facilities Do You Need to Achieve Your Goals?

Now that we’ve identified the business case, the customer, the funding sources, and the regulatory regimes that govern your new laboratory startup, it’s time for the facility project managers to begin working with the architects and designers to develop a list of “architectural programming requirements“ for the new laboratory.

One useful piece of advice: avoid “reinventing the wheel.”

There are many well-documented laboratory designs that can provide inspiration for your projects. Evaluate as many as you can to identify what would work for you and what you’d like to do differently.

Another useful resource is the publication Forensic Science Laboratories: Handbook for Facility Planning, Design, Construction, and Relocation , published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). While (as the title suggests) its focus is forensic science laboratories, it clearly documents a set of best practices for managing laboratory construction projects.

From a design perspective, laboratory facilities generally include one or more of these components:

In the language of laboratory design, wet labs are the areas that handle liquid chemicals. Designers need to pay particular attention to specifying chemically resistant surfaces, a sufficient number of wet sinks (often with their own special waste handling drainage system), as well as fume hoods to protect workers from potential exposure to noxious gases or dangerous particulates.

Dry Labs / Tech Labs

The term “dry lab” traditionally refers to laboratory zones that handle dry chemicals in small amounts.

Thanks to the revolution in scientific computing, however, the role of dry labs has expanded tremendously over the past few decades to incorporate computer systems as well. This has led to the rise of the “ tech lab ,” where lab researchers access and manage computer workstations or provide IT services to the organization. The computer systems can be a major source of heat, so these areas will usually need beefed up HVAC systems. Redundant power systems (such as backup generators or batteries) are also typically required.

Laboratory Clean Rooms

An increasing number of laboratories, such as those supporting the manufacture of printing microelectronics onto silicon wafers, require the use of cleanrooms to prevent microparticles from contaminating surfaces or to protect lab personnel from dangerous pathogens.

Electronics Labs

Microelectronics can be damaged by even small amounts of electricity, such as static shocks. Laboratories engaged in prototyping and testing electronic equipment need to be equipped with anti-electrostatic discharge (ESD) systems to prevent inadvertent damage to electronic equipment.

6. How Will Your Laboratory Needs Change Over the Next 10 Years?

Predicting the future is always difficult, but if we were to make one forecast, it would be that change is inevitable.

Laboratory equipment is changing year-by-year, experimental methods are evolving rapidly, and computer-based scientific discovery methods are becoming one of the dominant forces in laboratory science.

So, given that change is inevitable, what can you do today when designing your laboratory to prevent it from becoming obsolete in 10 years?

The answer is to design in flexibility so that you can make changes over time without having to endure the interruptions caused by extensive renovation projects.

It’s this need for flexibility that is driving many laboratory customers toward specifying modular furniture solutions for their new lab projects. Unlike traditional casework installations, modular laboratories are built out of standardized components (including wet sink installations, fume hoods, workbenches, storage units, etc.) that can be installed on-site using ordinary hand tools.

As your needs change in the future, the task of rearranging the modules to meet your current requirements is greatly simplified. If you need to expand, you simply contact the factory (e.g. Formaspace) to order additional matching components to complete your lab expansion project.  And, if you need to move, you can also easily disassemble and move the entire laboratory furniture set up to a new location without losing your initial investment.

7. What’s the Best Approach for Choosing a Lab Location?

The high cost of laboratory real estate, particularly in the so-called science clusters (located in the Boston and  New York regions on the East Coast and the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego on the West Coast), can be a determining factor when deciding where to locate your new lab startup.

In a departure from past practices, many new lab operations are opening in facilities originally designed for other purposes, such as underutilized retail locations, which can be leased at a relative discount compared to facilities that were originally purpose-built for laboratory operations.

If you’re evaluating the potential of converting an existing space into a lab facility, we recommend looking at our patented FabWall system. The modular FabWall system bolts securely into the floor, allowing you to divide open spaces into functional areas quickly and efficiently. Simply attach modular elements (such as wet sinks, workbenches, fume hood, and the like) directly to the FabWall.

The use of mobile lab furniture is another trend that facilitates the quick conversion of open spaces not originally designed for laboratory use.

Entire spaces can be kitted out quickly with workstations mounted on heavy-duty industrial-strength casters. Each workstation can support its own storage systems, shelving, as well as built-in electrical and networking connections.

8. How Can You Assure Laboratory Safety, Security, and Sustainability?

Safety first is the right mantra for laboratory design.

Here, details matter.

Double-check all safety requirements and make sure you are in compliance.

Questions you should ask yourself include: Are the fume hoods sized appropriately to protect lab workers? Are there a sufficient number of eyewash stations and first aid kits available? Is access to PPE well-thought-out – to encourage proper use? Is there adequate storage for potentially dangerous chemicals or fragile scientific equipment? Have you provided easily accessible drying racks for highly breakable glassware?

In many cases, specifying mobile storage carts can help prevent accidents when transporting heavy equipment; these can also make it easier to safely transport equipment in need of maintenance or service away from heavily trafficked areas to a dedicated service bay.

Protecting personnel from the Covid-19 virus is also another important consideration. Are lab workbenches spaced far enough apart to encourage social distancing? Are lab employees protected from one another by the use of transparent shields when they need to work in close quarters? Is the HVAC system designed to provide enhanced ventilation, ideally pulling air up and out of the facility rather than pushing it down toward the floor? Can you offer outdoor work areas for employees to conduct some of their work activities outside as well as provide pleasant outdoor areas for taking breaks and eating meals?

Greater emphasis is also being placed on lab security, especially given recent reports of foreign espionage directed at pharmaceutical research labs developing Coronavirus vaccines. Are your computer system sufficiently isolated and protected? Also, given that more employees will be accessing the outdoors, does the facility’s security perimeter policy take this into account?

Sustainability is another major concern in laboratory design. As we mentioned earlier, modular furniture designs can be reconfigured without difficulty, even moved to new locations if needed. This not only protects your original investment, it can also help you accrue LEED credits when performing future renovations or moving to a new facility.

Laboratory energy use is another important sustainability issue, especially given that most laboratories use energy at a greater rate than comparable office buildings (due to higher airflow requirements from fume hoods or cleanroom installations). Reducing energy use in laboratories remains a challenge, but new designs are showing it is possible, by increasing natural ventilation or redesigning the airflow in cleanroom installations for greater efficiency.

9. Will You be Able to Attract and Retain Lab Expertise/Talent?

The ability to attract and retain talent is a major concern for all companies, and laboratory facilities are no exception.

There’s a simple test you can take:  Would you want to work in the new laboratory you’re planning?

Does your design provide enough of the in-demand features that today’s employees are looking for, including open sightlines, plenty of natural light, good noise control to prevent distractions, even some connection to the outside world, such as green plants or other natural elements?

Are you providing enough amenities to retain today’s workers? Keep in mind that wellness on-the-job is important these days, and offering a comfortable, ergonomic workspace is as good for you as it is for your employees. Formaspace can help you specify lab seating that is both easy to clean and maintain in lab conditions but also provides workers with enhanced back support as well as the ability to change positions throughout the day. That’s also a feature that’s available in Formaspace desks, tables, and workstations. Our optional sit-to-stand furniture allows employees to change from working in a seated position to a standing position throughout the day for increased blood circulation and reduced fatigue.

10. Where Can You Find the Right Laboratory Partners?

This brings us to our final question to ask when you are making plans to launch a new laboratory facility.

Where can you find the right laboratory partners who can share their experience?

One approach is to join one or more lab trade associations that represent your industry sector and speak to other members about whom they can recommend as reliable partners to work with.

It’s these kinds of word-of-mouth recommendations that may lead you to Formaspace.

Formaspace stands ready to help make your new lab project venture a success. We build all our lab furniture here in Austin, Texas, at our factory headquarters, using locally produced steel and other American-made raw materials.

We have built furniture systems for hundreds of laboratories nation-wide; our client list includes Abbot Laboratories, Amgen, Baxter, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson&Johnson, Merck & Co., Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, and Quest Diagnostics Inc.

Formaspace is also a great resource to turn to when you have questions about laboratory design. Our Design Consultants are standing by to answer any questions you have. We can also provide full-service assistance in designing your next laboratory project – even it’s your first one.

Will your project be next? We hope so.

Take the next step.

Talk to your Formaspace Design Consultant today and see how we can partner with you to make your next lab project a success.

University of South Florida

College of Engineering

Main navigation, usf college of engineering news, cse professor attila a. yavuz and his lab are taking part in a large-scale post-quantum cryptography research project for smart-grids.

• April 9, 2024

CSE Associate Professor Attila Yavuz and his lab, Applied Cryptography Research Laboratory (ACRL), will be participating in a large-scale research project funded by the Department of Energy: "Zero-Trust Authentication: Multifactor, Adaptive, and Continuous Authentication with Post-Quantum Cryptography." This large-scale research project aims to defend smart-grid systems against powerful state-level attackers, including those equipped with advanced quantum computing capabilities. Professor Yavuz’s research group is part of a nation-wide coalition that was recently awarded $4.5 million, and his lab’s portion of the funds was $650,000. The coalition includes four other universities, including Texas A&M University-Kingsville, one national lab, one research laboratory, and three utilities.

“As a cyber-security expert with a great passion for cryptography, this project allows me to harness my skills to protect our critical energy infrastructure from hackers, and it is an invaluable motivation for me to participate in this project,” said Professor Yavuz. At the heart of any modern computer system lies the Energy-Delivery Systems (EDS), since they form the backbone of the powerhouse that feeds our giant computing nexus, be it a supercluster running battle simulations or a surgical robot in the middle of a surgery. However, these EDS rely on public key infrastructures, which are currently based on conventional cryptographic methods. Emerging quantum computers can break these conventional public key-based (PKC) techniques (e.g., RSA, ECDSA) much faster than classic computers. 

“Imagine an attacker modifying the command ‘decrease power’ to ‘sharp increase power’ during the transmission of the command. Such a false command injection can overload the grid, creating severe damage to the energy infrastructure,” said Professor Yavuz. Preventing such a catastrophe requires cryptographic algorithms that must be secure against quantum-powerful adversaries. One of the most notable outcomes of these efforts is the recent NIST-PQC standards, which are considered a future replacement for the current conventional PKC. However, NIST-PQC standards are significantly costlier than their conventional counterparts since they require more computation and transmission, thereby putting a heavier load on the underlying application, such as EDS.

Unfortunately, current techniques do not meet stringent delay requirements and are also not suitable for low-end devices in EDS systems (e.g., smart meters). Due to the severity of this threat combined with the narrow acceptable parameters, governments and industrial entities have been making billion-dollar investments in Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Professor Yavuz’s research group will devise novel post-quantum algorithms for secure authentication and integrity techniques that are fast and lightweight enough to meet the speed needs of EDS and low-end smart-grid devices. 

“Our approach is iterative cryptographic algorithm development followed by field tests,” said Professor Yavuz. “We will first design hash-based and lattice-based techniques, supported with secure hardware and blockchains, to craft techniques that meet the performance needs of EDS.” He described how they would afterward construct mathematical proofs and prototype implementations in collaboration with the other research teams and national labs of this project. They’ll then iterate based on their feedback until the results are within the highly stringent parameters. “Finally, with utilities and research labs, we will test the effectiveness of our methods on actual EDS systems in the field.” He finished.

“It was a great experience to be part of this proposal, wherein I found an opportunity to develop novel ideas with a diverse team of collaborators comprised of excellent researchers.” Said Professor Yavuz.

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News about engineering excellence by world class faculty, and outstanding students and alumni of the College of Engineering. 

Microsoft, Amazon and UW partner with Japan for AI research and expansion

The University of Washington and Amazon are partnering with Japanese companies and universities to further innovation of artificial intelligence through a $110 million initiative announced Tuesday. 

On the same day, Microsoft announced plans to invest $2.9 billion over the next two years to increase its cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Japan. The Redmond-based tech giant said it will train 3 million people across Japan in AI upskilling in the next three years and open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab there. 

The two announcements coincided with a visit by Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to Washington, D.C., where he is expected to discuss AI, space tech and semiconductors with President Joe Biden. 

“As economic activities in the digital space increase, it is important for the Japanese industry as a whole to work with global companies like Microsoft that are equipped with a set of digital infrastructure,” Kishida said in a prepared statement Tuesday. 

Microsoft said its investment will enable more advanced computing resources in Japan, including its latest graphics processing units, or GPUs. That technology helps speed up “AI workloads,” industry lingo for how quickly the technology can finish tasks. 

The $2.9 billion investment will double Microsoft’s existing investments to expand AI and cloud infrastructure in Japan, the company said.

Meanwhile, UW said Tuesday it will partner with the University of Tsukuba in Japan to advance different aspects of the AI industry, from research projects to workforce development to entrepreneurship. Though the specifics of the initiative are still being ironed out, UW expects the funding will go toward research awards, an undergraduate summer research program and an entrepreneurship program.

Jihui Yang, the vice dean for UW’s College of Engineering, expects to get the framework off the ground by the fall. 

“This is a tremendous opportunity for us to do something in the AI area,” Yang said. “Seattle is known to be a tech hub, and Tsukuba is known to be a science city in Japan — it came to be a winning combination.” 

The AI initiative includes two cross-Pacific partnerships: one between UW and the University of Tsukuba and another between Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and Keio University. 

UW has been allocated $50 million for its partnership, with $25 million of that coming from Amazon and another $25 million from chipmaker Nvidia. With one software company and one hardware company backing the effort, Yang said the “opportunity to leverage all this brain power is just incredible.”

The other $60 million for the partnership between CMU and Keio University is coming from Microsoft and semiconductor company Arm, as well as some Japanese companies, according to a news release from UW.

Microsoft said Tuesday it had committed $10 million to the AI partnership between the two universities and to the University of Tokyo to enhance research collaboration there.

Amazon and Microsoft — among the Seattle area’s largest employers and two of the country’s tech giants — have invested heavily to make a name for themselves in the fiercely competitive AI industry. Microsoft has consistently backed OpenAI, the startup that catapulted generative AI into the public eye when it launched ChatGPT, while Amazon has invested billions in AI startup Anthropic .

The generative AI industry is expected to grow over the next decade, from a $40 billion industry in 2022 to a $1.3 trillion market , according to a report last year from Bloomberg Intelligence. 

In January, Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing arm, announced it would invest $15 billion in cloud infrastructure in Japan by 2027.

Yang, from UW, said AI has become a fundamental part of the university’s engineering curriculum. Students now have to be trained in their engineering discipline — plus AI. 

“We’re at the start of a historical moment where AI is changing the way we live,” Yang said.

The collaboration is part of a multiyear effort to strengthen the United States’ business and research partnerships with Japan, according to UW’s announcement. The university has also participated in a partnership focused on workforce development for the semiconductor industry. 

“This is an exciting effort that brings together the talents and expertise of cutting-edge, world-class universities,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement Tuesday. 

“Advancements in AI are happening at a breakneck pace,” Inslee said. “This collaboration will help provide the research and workforce training for our regions’ tech sectors to keep up with the profound impacts AI is having across every sector of our economy.”

Microsoft Philanthropies underwrites some Seattle Times journalism projects.

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• Shattuck Labs-stock
• News for Shattuck Labs

Shattuck Labs Announces Oral Presentation of Preclinical Data at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024

– Aberrant TRIM7 expression identified as a key driver of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) acquired resistance; inhibition of TRIM7 with small molecule inhibitors may prevent or reverse acquired resistance to PD-1/L1 blockade –

AUSTIN, TX and DURHAM, NC, April 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shattuck Labs, Inc. (Shattuck) (Nasdaq: STTK), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of bifunctional fusion proteins as a new class of biologic medicine for the treatment of patients with cancer and autoimmune disease, today announced preclinical data demonstrating the therapeutic utility of TRIM7 inhibition to prevent or reverse acquired resistance to immune checkpoint therapy. These data were featured in an oral presentation during the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, being held from April 5-10, 2024, in San Diego, California.

“One of the largest areas of unmet medical need in oncology is in the setting of acquired resistance to checkpoint inhibitors, and we expect this to continue to grow because of the broad application of anti-PD1/PD-L1 inhibitors across multiple tumor types. Our efforts in helping to define the underlying biology of acquired resistance were recently revealed with a publication in Cancer Cell ,” said Taylor Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Shattuck. “I am very pleased to share how our team has leveraged those biological insights to identify a novel target, TRIM7, which appears to be a mediator of the acquired resistant phenotype in mouse and human tumors, and, importantly, this has led to a development compound that reverses PD-1 acquired resistance in pre-clinical studies through specific inhibition of TRIM7. We expect that these efforts will support expansion of our oncology pipeline alongside our lead program, SL-172154.”

Presentation Details Abstract title: Aberrant TRIM7 Expression Potentiates RACO-1 Mediated Proliferation and Dysregulated Interferon Responsiveness in the Setting of anti-PD-1 Acquired Resistance in Cancer Location: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California Presenter: Dr. George Fromm, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Shattuck Labs Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics Session Title: Drug Discovery 2: New Therapies Date/Time: Tuesday, April 9, 2024, 4:05 PM - 4:20 PM (PT) Abstract Presentation Number: 6584

Key Takeaways

• TRIM7 is an E3 ligase which supports tumor cell proliferation downstream of KRAS signaling through ubiquitination and stabilization of RACO-1. TRIM7 also contributes to PD-1 acquired resistance through ubiquitination and degradation of STING and MAVS.
• Shattuck developed a series of small-molecule inhibitors of TRIM7 that specifically disrupt KRAS-mediated tumor cell proliferation, reverse the transcriptional phenotype of PD-1 acquired resistance, and restore sensitivity to anti-PD1 antibodies to PD-1 acquired resistant tumors in pre-clinical models.

Additional meeting information can be found on the AACR website. A copy of the AACR presentation will be available on the Investors section of the Company’s website shortly after the event.

About Shattuck Labs, Inc. Shattuck Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: STTK) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of bi-functional fusion proteins as a new class of biologic medicine for the treatment of patients with cancer and autoimmune disease. Compounds derived from Shattuck’s proprietary Agonist Redirected Checkpoint (ARC®) platform are designed to simultaneously inhibit checkpoint molecules and activate costimulatory molecules with a single therapeutic. The company’s lead SL-172154 (SIRPα-Fc-CD40L) program, which is designed to block the CD47 immune checkpoint and simultaneously agonize the CD40 pathway, is being evaluated in multiple Phase 1 trials. Shattuck has offices in both Austin, Texas and Durham, North Carolina. For more information, please visit: www.ShattuckLabs.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements regarding: the potential benefit of TRIM7 inhibition alone or in combination with KRAS pathway inhibition and/or blockage of PD-L1, clinical development plans and strategies for SL-172154, future plans for Shattuck’s pipeline and Shattuck’s strategies. Words such as “anticipate,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “objective,” “intend,” “should,” “could,” “can,” “would,” “expect,” “believe,” “design,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “develop,” “plan” or the negative of these terms, and similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to the company on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties (including, without limitation, those set forth in Shattuck’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)), many of which are beyond the company’s control and subject to change. Actual results could be materially different. Risks and uncertainties which could cause such outcomes to change include: global macroeconomic conditions and related volatility; expectations regarding the initiation, progress, and expected results of Shattuck’s preclinical studies, clinical trials and research and development programs; expectations regarding the timing, completion and outcome of the company’s clinical trials; the unpredictable relationship between preclinical study results and clinical study results; the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals; liquidity and capital resources and other risks and uncertainties identified in Shattuck’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and subsequent disclosure documents filed with the SEC. Shattuck claims the protection of the Safe Harbor contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for forward-looking statements. Shattuck expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter any statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

The Company intends to use the investor relations portion of its website as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Investor & Media Contact: Conor Richardson Vice President of Investor Relations Shattuck Labs, Inc. [email protected]

Shattuck Labs News MORE

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NAB 2024: Moments Lab Launches AI Research Program to Advance Video Understanding

By SVG Staff Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 11:12 am Print This Story

I and video search company Moments Lab (formerly Newsbridge) has launched an AI research program to advance multimodal and generative AI video understanding with low-energy-consumption models. France’s leading public graduate school for engineering, Telecom SudParis, and free-to-air broadcaster and streaming platform TF1 Group are the first organizations to join the Moments Lab program, with more research partners to be announced shortly. Moments Lab will showcase the features of its new MXT-1.5 at the 2024 NAB Show (Booth SL2113).

“Content producers and creators already use AI to accelerate workflows and capitalize on their entire media library, largely thanks to video-indexing technologies powered by speech and image processing,” explains Dr. Yannis Tevissen, recently appointed head of science at Moments Lab following the completion of his doctorate in artificial intelligence. “However, the margin for improvement remains huge. Videos are highly complex, with very high dimensional variations. The next frontier for building content from human knowledge likely lies in efficiently understanding what’s inside video files. Doing so at scale with small, energy-efficient models is an even bigger challenge, which Moments Lab is already making headway on.”

Olivier Martinot, director of innovation at Telecom SudParis (IMT Group), said, “Our research partnership with Moments Lab follows the CIFRE thesis led by Dr. Yannis Tevissen and supervised by Telecom SudParis professor Jérôme Boudy. Telecom SudParis is delighted to provide its research skills in the field of content analysis and transform this research into innovation with Moments Lab.”

“What Moments Lab is achieving with its next-gen AI indexing models aligns with TF1’s ambition to evolve our Group and future ways of working with cutting-edge technology,” adds Olivier Penin, director of innovation at TF1 Group . “Our goal is to increase productivity and enhance video storytelling through the effective use of AI in media indexing. We know that we will make exciting progress in this area as research partners.”

The research program announcement follows Moments Lab’s multimillion-dollar investment in deep-tech R&D and the successful launch of its game-changing, patented AI indexing technology MXT-1 — which has won several industry awards since its launch in 2023, including the IABM Peter Wayne Golden BaM Award.

The company has launched a new, dedicated research website where it will publish its findings. More information about Moments Lab’s AI R&D projects can be found at www.research.momentslab.com.

During the 2024 NAB Show, Moments Lab will also be participating in the Programming Everywhere Conference in the Beethoven, Encore Hotel on Sunday, April 14, at 1:45 p.m. PDT. Moments Lab CEO and co-founder Philippe Petitpont will discuss “Building Better Stories Faster with AI Moment-Based Search,” focusing on how multimodal AI indexing technology is transforming production workflows with powerful moments-based search and editorial sequencing.

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Microsoft is about to pump billions more into AI data centers

• Microsoft plans to invest $2.9 billion in AI data centers in Japan by 2025.
• It's the latest big push by the tech giant to boost its AI business. 
• In November, Microsoft announced it'd spend roughly $3 billion on AI data centers in the UK.

Microsoft is investing some serious capital in new AI data centers, and Japan is the latest country to benefit.

The tech giant plans to pour $2.9 billion into AI data centers in Japan by 2025, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

As part of its investment — the company's largest ever in Japan — Microsoft will place advanced AI semiconductors in two of Japan's existing data centers, Nikkei Asia reported .

Related stories

Microsoft's investment plans also include developing an AI training program for 3 million workers in Japan over a three-year period, as well as building an AI and robotics research lab in Tokyo that will fund $9.9 million worth of research projects over a five-year period, the company confirmed.

And Microsoft said it plans to work with the Japanese government to improve its cybersecurity practices.

"The competitiveness of every part of the Japanese economy...will depend on the adoption of AI," Microsoft President Brad Smith told Nikkei Asia.

"The threat landscape for cybersecurity has become more challenging," Smith told Nikkei Asia. "We're seeing that from China and from Russia in particular, but we're also seeing growing ransomware activity around the world."

Partnerships like this, between governments and leading tech companies, are essential for a country to beef up its security, Smith added, according to Nikkei Asia.

Nikkei Asia reported that Microsoft would officially announce the investment soon. Representatives for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Japan, like other countries around the world, has been racing to keep up with the US's dominance in artificial intelligence technology and computing. And data sovereignty — where a country manages its own data domestically — is critical to protecting its national security and privacy.

Microsoft has been on an AI investment tear. In November, the tech giant announced a £2.5 billion investment in UK data centers to help the country expand its AI infrastructure.

And just this week, Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman said the company is opening up an AI hub in London — a move that could help Microsoft attract the country's top tech talent over competitors like Google.

Watch: How tech layoffs could affect the economy

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No sign of greenhouse gases increases slowing in 2023

• April 5, 2024

Levels of the three most important human-caused greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane and nitrous oxide – continued their steady climb during 2023, according to NOAA scientists. 

While the rise in the three heat-trapping gases recorded in the air samples collected by NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) in 2023 was not quite as high as the record jumps observed in recent years, they were in line with the steep increases observed during the past decade. 

“NOAA’s long-term air sampling program is essential for tracking causes of climate change and for supporting the U.S. efforts to establish an integrated national greenhouse gas measuring, monitoring and information system,” said GML Director Vanda Grubišić. “As these numbers show, we still have a lot of work to do to make meaningful progress in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere.” 

The global surface concentration of CO 2 , averaged across all 12 months of 2023, was 419.3 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 2.8 ppm during the year. This was the 12th consecutive year CO 2 increased by more than 2 ppm, extending the highest sustained rate of CO 2 increases during the 65-year monitoring record. Three consecutive years of CO 2  growth of 2 ppm or more had not been seen in NOAA’s monitoring records prior to 2014. Atmospheric CO 2 is now more than 50% higher than pre-industrial levels.

This graph shows the globally averaged monthly mean carbon dioxide abundance measured at the Global Monitoring Laboratory’s global network of air sampling sites since 1980. Data are still preliminary, pending recalibrations of reference gases and other quality control checks. Credit: NOAA GML

“The 2023 increase is the third-largest in the past decade, likely a result of an ongoing increase of fossil fuel CO 2 emissions, coupled with increased fire emissions possibly as a result of the transition from La Nina to El Nino,” said Xin Lan, a CIRES scientist who leads GML’s effort to synthesize data from the NOAA Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network for tracking global greenhouse gas trends .

Atmospheric methane, less abundant than CO 2 but more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere, rose to an average of 1922.6 parts per billion (ppb). The 2023 methane increase over 2022 was 10.9 ppb, lower than the record growth rates seen in 2020 (15.2 ppb), 2021(18 ppb)  and 2022 (13.2 ppb), but still the 5th highest since renewed methane growth started in 2007. Methane levels in the atmosphere are now more than 160% higher than their pre-industrial level.

This graph shows globally-averaged, monthly mean atmospheric methane abundance determined from marine surface sites for the full NOAA time-series starting in 1983. Values for the last year are preliminary, pending recalibrations of standard gases and other quality control steps. Credit: NOAA GM

In 2023, levels of nitrous oxide, the third-most significant human-caused greenhouse gas, climbed by 1 ppb to 336.7 ppb. The two years of highest growth since 2000 occurred in 2020 (1.3 ppb) and 2021 (1.3 ppb). Increases in atmospheric nitrous oxide during recent decades are mainly from use of nitrogen fertilizer and manure from the expansion and intensification of agriculture. Nitrous oxide concentrations are 25% higher than the pre-industrial level of 270 ppb.

Taking the pulse of the planet one sample at a time NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory collected more than 15,000 air samples from monitoring stations around the world in 2023 and analyzed them in its state-of-the-art laboratory in Boulder,

Colorado. Each spring, NOAA scientists release preliminary calculations of the global average levels of these three primary long-lived greenhouse gases observed during the previous year to track their abundance, determine emissions and sinks, and understand carbon cycle feedbacks.

Measurements are obtained from air samples collected from sites in NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network , which includes about 53 cooperative sampling sites around the world, 20 tall tower sites, and routine aircraft operation sites from North America. 

Carbon dioxide emissions remain the biggest problem 

By far the most important contributor to climate change is CO 2 , which is primarily emitted by burning of fossil fuels. Human-caused CO 2 pollution increased from 10.9 billion tons per year in the 1960s – which is when the measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii began – to about 36.8 billion tons per year in 2023. This sets a new record, according to the Global Carbon Project , which uses NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network measurements to define the net impact of global carbon emissions and sinks.

The amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere today is comparable to where it was around 4.3 million years ago during the mid- Pliocene epoch , when sea level was about 75 feet higher than today, the average temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher than in pre-industrial times, and large forests occupied areas of the Arctic that are now tundra. 

About half of the CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels to date have been absorbed at the Earth’s surface, divided roughly equally between oceans and land ecosystems, including grasslands and forests. The CO 2 absorbed by the world’s oceans contributes to ocean acidification, which is causing a fundamental change in the chemistry of the ocean, with impacts to marine life and the people who depend on them. The oceans have also absorbed an estimated 90% of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. 

Research continues to point to microbial sources for rising methane

NOAA’s measurements show that atmospheric methane increased rapidly during the 1980s, nearly stabilized in the late-1990s and early 2000s, then resumed a rapid rise in 2007. 

A 2022 study by NOAA and NASA scientists and additional NOAA research in 2023 suggests that more than 85% of the increase from 2006 to 2021 was due to increased microbial emissions generated by livestock, agriculture, human and agricultural waste, wetlands and other aquatic sources. The rest of the increase was attributed to increased fossil fuel emissions. 

“In addition to the record high methane growth in 2020-2022, we also observed sharp changes in the isotope composition of the methane that indicates an even more dominant role of microbial emission increase,” said Lan. The exact causes of the recent increase in methane are not yet fully known. 

NOAA scientists are investigating the possibility that climate change is causing wetlands to give off increasing methane emissions in a feedback loop. 

To learn more about the Global Monitoring Laboratory’s greenhouse gas monitoring, visit: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/.

Media Contact: Theo Stein, [email protected] , 303-819-7409

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