The Richard King Mellon Foundation granted $100M to the University of Pittsburgh to support biomanufacturing
Summary
That new center will be called the University of Pittsburgh BioForge — “a highly specialized biomanufacturing facility that will help bring new cell and gene therapies and other novel treatments to patients and the marketplace,” the press release said. The BioForge will range from 200,000 to 250,000 square feet, and will be available to both academic researchers as well as commercial partners in the area with need for the lab, manufacturing, innovation and incubation resources the facility will offer. While some parts of the complex are still in development, Hazelwood Green has already become a community hub, hosting everything from outdoor neighborhood movie nights to the inaugural United States-European Union Trade and Technology Council meeting in September. That status is a long time coming, given the medical expertise of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and of the hospital and healthcare systems headquartered here like UPMC and Allegheny Health Network. Small companies, too, have reached significant milestones, with AlphaLab Health startup CytoAgents achieving Phase I clinical trial approval and ALung Technologies receiving De Novo clearance from the FDA for its signature product.