Amgen And LabCentral Open Nomination Process For Lab Residency

An Opportunity for Start-Ups to be Awarded a Golden Ticket

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Sep 05, 2018, 09:00 ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and LabCentral today announced that the nomination process to submit proposals to receive an Amgen-sponsored LabCentral Golden Ticket is open for interested life sciences and biotech startup companies. LabCentral is an innovative, shared laboratory space designed as a launchpad for premier high-impact life sciences and biotech startups. As one of LabCentral's platinum sponsors, Amgen can nominate up to two early-stage companies each year to take up residence in LabCentral's Kendall Square facilities in Cambridge, Mass.

"Opening the nomination process for the next Golden Ticket winners is always an exciting time for Amgen," said Aine Hanly, vice president of Process Development and Amgen Massachusetts site head. "Our goal is to help advance the next generation of high-potential biotech companies by supporting their innovative research and rewarding them with the opportunity to further advance their science into meaningful solutions."

"We're thrilled to help kick off the nomination process for the Amgen Golden Ticket program once again this year," said LabCentral Co-founder and President Johannes Fruehauf, M.D., Ph.D. "Thanks to Amgen's critical support of the Golden Ticket program and its refined, well-rounded selection process, previous years' winners have been outstanding contributors to the LabCentral community, and they've all successfully been able to leverage their time at LabCentral to achieve their scientific and business milestones."

During the 2018 Golden Ticket nomination process, Amgen will sponsor up to two promising life-sciences and biotech startup companies to reside in LabCentral's facilities. The Golden Ticket represents one year of bench space for one scientist, including benefit of LabCentral's shared infrastructure and services (such as conference rooms, permits, shared equipment and facilities, participation in LabCentral training modules and seminars).

Interested companies should send non-confidential company presentations for consideration to submit your application here by Oct. 15, 2018. Amgen will notify the Golden Ticket winners in December 2018.

Since the collaboration launched in 2014, Amgen has awarded Golden Tickets to Novopyxis, Cocoon Biotech, Platelet Biogenesis, Holobiome, Torus Therapeutics, Kernal Biologics, Inc. and QurAlis.

About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.

For more information, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on www.twitter.com/amgen.

About LabCentral (www.labcentral.org; twitter @labcentral)
LabCentral is a first-of-its-kind shared laboratory workspace in the heart of the Kendall Square, Cambridge, biotech innovation hub, designed as a launchpad for high-potential life-sciences and biotech startups. It offers everything young companies need to begin lab operations immediately upon move-in and propel their science forward faster and more cost-efficiently. This includes: beautifully designed, fully permitted lab and office space, first-class facility and administrative support, skilled laboratory personnel, peer learning and networking opportunities, an expert speaker series — as well as critical access to potential funders and industry partners. A private, nonprofit institution, its first site opened in 2013, with support from real-estate partner, MIT. Founding sponsors include Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Roche, and Triumvirate Environmental. To accommodate demand for growing startups, LabCentral expanded its original site to double the original size in the fall of 2017, and, with support from Pfizer, opened LabCentral 610 at the end of the year. LabCentral now has capacity to serve a total of ~450 scientists and entrepreneurs in about 70 companies across its two-building campus. In 2017, it also added the LabCentral Learning Lab for STEM programming to help inspire the next generation of science entrepreneurs.

Contact:
Amgen, Massachusetts
Jennifer Bianco, (401) 392-8815
[email protected]

LabCentral, Massachusetts
Caroline Grossman, (781) 771-5579
[email protected]

SOURCE Amgen