From academia to action, from lab to life.
This might as well be the motto of the newly minted biotech accelerator Petri, which exited stealth on Friday.
True to its name, the startup accelerator wants to be a place that cultures projects on the next frontier of biology and engineering. With the launch of its 5,000 sq. ft. office and lab space at 27 Drydock Ave. in the Seaport District, Petri aims to fast-track biological research to commercial success.
Petri is spearheaded by Brian Baynes, a venture partner at Flagship Pioneering and Tony Kulesa, who earlier founded a maker space for life sciences research at MIT. Petri's startup capital comes from Boston-based Pillar VC. Founding partner Jamie Goldstein will serve as the accelerator's chairman.
The 12-month program will offer participants office and lab space. In addition to the fully resourced lab and $250,000, participants also gain access to all-star biotech companies in Boston including Ginkgo Bioworks, Path AI and Asimov, plus prominent researchers like Pam Silver and George Church. In return, Petri will take equity.
"We're going to help teams develop a business plan, intellectual property and build a team," said Kulesa. "Universities don't have the budget to do that. Here teambuilding is part of the game."
The accelerator aims for its first cohort to begin in February next year. Baynes and Kulesa will begin meeting with teams at the end of October.
While Petri is welcoming researchers across the world to apply, Kulesa anticipates that a majority of them will be local.
"We are certainly excited to meet people from the world, but we expect a lot of people come from Boston," Kulesa said.
