Bayer AG plans to open its Woodland research campus to startups and academics who are working on food and ag science.
The new LifeHub California @Woodland will open in the third quarter this year behind the gates of Bayer’s Woodland vegetables research station.
The idea behind Bayer's LifeHubs is to foster innovation and help ideas in science get from conception to the marketplace, said Alberto Iandolino, open innovation scout and research and development alliance manager with Bayer.
The Woodland campus LifeHub will occupy about 6,000 square feet of space, divided about equally between office spaces and wet-lab scientific space in a lab that was outfitted by Monsanto Company, when it did vegetable seed science in the space until its 2018 acquisition by Bayer.
The space still needs to be reconfigured, and it will be separated from access to Bayer’s labs.
The Bayer vegetable research and development site in Woodland develops seeds for tomatoes, melons, cucumber, watermelon, squash and zucchini, as well as seeds for hot and sweet peppers and sweet corn. It also does some research into biological controls, which are natural methods to combat pests, without environmentally harmful pesticides.
The LifeHub California @Woodland will be in addition to the Bayer LifeHub California @AgStart that Bayer sponsors at the Lab@AgStart in downtown Woodland. The Lab@AgStart offers access to labs, scientific equipment, commercial food preparation and office space. It also features a tissue culture lab and fermentation lab.
Since at least 2018, Bayer has been making local efforts to support startups, small scientific companies and companies that it's invested in. In 2018, Bayer opened the Bayer Crop Science CoLaborator at its former 175,000-square-foot offices, labs and campus in West Sacramento. That West Sacramento CoLaborator was 3,000 square feet of office space, conference rooms and a laboratory.
This new LifeHub on the Woodland Bayer campus will be twice as large the CoLaborator was, Iandolino said. By bringing startups to Bayer’s labs, it allows the company’s scientists to advise and support startups with science and techniques. It also, in turn, keeps Bayer scientists up on emerging science and technology.
Some of the companies that started out in the former West Sacramento Bayer CoLaborator in West Sacramento included Joyn Bio and Biome Makers Inc.
Biome Makers now has customers all over the world, and its own office and labs in Davis. Joyn Bio was a joint partnership of Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc. (NYSE:DNA), and those researchers now research their own agricultural biologics technology at the former Bayer campus in West Sacramento, which is controlled by Ginkgo.
Other partners in the LifeHub California @Woodland will include AgStart, the Greater Sacramento Economic Council and the University of California Davis' Venture Catalyst program.
The new LifeHub California @Woodland joins a global network of Bayer LifeHubs, Iandolino said. They tend to have themes. The Bayer LifeHub in Boston is focused on pharmaceutical research and startups. The Woodland LifeHub’s theme will be agriculture and food sustainability.
Bayer’s global Crop Science Division headquarters in Monheim, Germany, has a LifeHub focused on sustainable food security.
One of the oldest LifeHubs is the LifeHub UK in Berkshire, England, which is an artificial intelligence-powered initiative focused on medical imagery and radiology workflow solutions.
Iandolino has been in strategy for seven years with Bayer. He had previously been a research scientist with Monsanto in Woodland and he spent five years at UC Davis, where he earned his doctorate in plant biology and biotechnology.
