Gate Neurosciences, a clinical-stage biotech startup working to develop the next generation of neuroscience therapies, increased its R&D capabilities this month with 2,000 square feet of lab space in Evanston, Illinois.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, Gate Neurosciences is working to advance a new class of medicines in major depressive disorder. Its expanded research operations will be led by Dr. Joseph Moskal and Jeffery Burgdorf of Northwestern University.
CEO Mike McCully said the lab, based at NorthShore Evanston Hospital, could be just the start to Gate's activities in the area.
McCully went to grad school at Northwestern and was based on the West Coast for 15 years before deciding he wanted to be closer to home.
"After 15 years of it, I didn't want to try to build companies in the Bay Area anymore or try to do it in Boston because it's just so challenging with talent, facility space and the cost to do it," he told the Chicago Business Journal.
While fewer companies are expected to move or expand to Chicago this year, life sciences continues to be one growth area that has city officials excited. BiomeSense, a Chicago-based biotech company, closed a $3 million funding round this week, and Fulton Labs, a 725,000-square-foot life sciences campus, continues to defy office market trends by bringing in new tenants.
McCully said the Evanston area in particular has produced several biotech companies over the past 10 to 15 years. He said that Chicago has all the pieces to become the next big biotech hub in the country, though he admits Chicagoland was not the only competition out there when they were looking for space.
"Pittsburgh is trying to do this as well, and you've got more classic places like San Francisco, Boston and San Diego. Everyone's trying to do it — how successful everyone can be is the real question," he said.
McCully said the medicines that Gate is developing will impact tens of millions of patients, but moving forward the company will be approaching fundraising cautiously given some of the funding challenges he's seen across the biotech space.
"It is somewhat more challenging to raise money for a Midwest company, but that just means that we have to get on the road," he said. "Our intention is to try to close financing sometime in the second half of this year to really drive through this next phase of development."
