Ohio State University's most successful spinoff company to date raised $182 million in its IPO, and unlike many 2021 compatriots, its stock is trading recently not too far off the issue price.
Entrada Therapeutics Inc. is building out an 80,000-square-foot headquarters, according to its annual report, and the biotech firm employs 130 people, half with doctoral degrees, as it develops therapies for muscular dystrophy.
All of that activity, $97 million in annual operating expenditures last year, takes place along the seaport in Boston.
Entrada (Nasdaq: TRDA) is the largest but not only startup licensing OSU technology that could not find either the lab space or funding to set up shop in Columbus. (This April Entrada did pay the university $2.8 million upon closing a sublicense deal, according to its quarterly report.)
"We’ve seen multiple groups go to the coasts," said Peter Mohler, OSU interim executive vice president of research, innovation and knowledge.
The newly opened Pelotonia Research Center is one way to keep future spinouts in Ohio, he said, as well as a more convenient front door for established industries to interact with OSU's talent.
The five-story, 305,000-square foot interdisciplinary laboratory building opened in May, the first university-owned structure to open since creation of the west-campus Carmenton innovation district. With some existing OSU halls nearby and others nearing completion, overall there are 270 acres to develop in the coming decade.
Both the research center and neighboring Energy Advancement and Innovation Center have extra space that OSU can lease to outside companies – whether or not they're licensing school tech. An extra floor was added during design of the energy center.
"A large part of our land-grant mission is job development and economic development for the region," Mohler told Columbus Inno. "We don't want (tech startups) to drift out of the region."
Importantly, Ohio State isn't working in a vacuum, he said. Central Ohio's tech and venture capital scene have gained vibrancy and multiple government and private groups are aiding the sector.
"It's night and day from even pre-pandemic," Mohler said.
"Faculty now see Columbus s home for their ventures," he said. "We were missing key pieces of the recipe before."
Economic development groups One Columbus and JobsOhio have actively supported Carmenton's development, including via a $100 million incentive from the statewide group.
"That doesn't happen everywhere," Mohler said.
Researchers in the Pelotonia center have redirected goals from winning a grant or getting a paper published – which can result in real-world applications later – to a laser focus on a desired outcome, like treating Alzheimer's disease.
"We're now thinking about science first ... about impact," Mohler said, and then building the teams needed from varied engineering, health sciences or other departments. Those teams also could work in tandem with industry – Medtronic on a medical device or Honda on electric vehicle tech.
Likewise teams in the Pelotonia building will collaborate with those in Carmenton neighbors – OSU Wexner Medical Center's outpatient cancer complex, the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center and private Nationwide Children's Hospital spinoff Andelyn BioSciences Inc.
"We simply can't do it alone," Mohler said. "Likewise they can't do it alone."
Plans for the building and interdisciplinary concept predated the brief administration of Kristina Johnson – indeed, OSU has preached cross-college collaboration since at least Karen Holbrook.
But Johnson and Grace Wang, Mohler's predecessor as EVP, enthusiastically embraced and advanced the innovation district. both engineers and inventors themselves.
Johnson created the role for Wang, and united the research office with industry relations and tech commercialization.
"We're getting a lot traction and momentum, having those under the same shop," Mohler said.
Mohler, OSU's research vice president and chief science officer of Wexner Medical Center, added the interim EVP title in March when Wang became president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
A presidential search is under way, and the future of the EVP role is up to the next leader. Nonetheless, Ohio State has already seen dividends from the union of the offices, and trustees this year did not change the committee focused on innovation and startups.
"The momentum has not skipped a beat," Mohler said.
The Pelotonia center has room for embedded representatives from the commercialization office and entrepreneurship center at the Fisher College of Business, he said. The door is also open to Rev1 Ventures, CincyTech and VC firms.
The model is similar to innovation districts at Stanford University and MIT.
The Pelotionia and energy centers will house research partnerships with Intel, Honda and other industry.
"This is a big part of our, and their, strategy," Mohler said. "Those typically would have sat in two different offices in Ohio State. Here we can go to one meeting with the leaders."
Check out the slideshow for a tour of OSU's Pelotonia Research Center and some of its Carmenton neighbors.
OSU Pelotonia Research Center
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