ATCC and the ILSE Collaborate to Establish a New Microbiology Center

The Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurship (ILSE), a non-profit translational science research integrator, accelerator and incubator, and ATCC, the premier global biological materials resource and standards organization, announced today a collaboration to establish The ATCC Center for Translational Microbiology at ILSE (the “center”).

The focus of the center will be on key challenges identified by both ATCC and ILSE in current translational microbiology, including antimicrobial resistance, synthetic biology, microbial bioinformatics and the microbiome. Research laboratories and staff will be located at ILSE facilities within the state-of-the-art New Jersey Center for Science, Technology & Mathematics (NJCSTM) building at Kean University. Kean University is a founding member of ILSE.

Under the terms of the multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership, initial funding to ILSE will support the recruitment of an initial 10-12 person scientific team and the start-up of research operations. Once established, additional funding will be sought from grants, external research collaborations and partnerships and from follow-on ATCC investment. The agreement also contains provisions for the sharing of product and licensing revenues that result from the center’s research (details not disclosed).

Raymond Cypess, DVM, Ph.D., CEO of ATCC said, “We are pleased to partner with ILSE in establishing this important new research initiative in microbiology. As the premier biological resource center for life science research we see this as an opportunity to expand our footprint into the talent and resource rich New Jersey region and develop new research tools and technologies that will enable the execution of 21^st century microbiological R&D. Our scientists and staff are excited to be involved in this new initiative and to work with the ILSE team.”

Keith Bostian, Ph.D., Founder and Interim CEO of ILSE and Dean of the NJCSTM (“STEM”) program at Kean University said, “We are excited to be working with such an esteemed organization as ATCC to create this new Center focused on cutting edge research in Microbiology. Our aim is to leverage the talent and resources available in NJ and the surrounding region to build a world-class research and product development effort. Founded just one year ago as a not-for-profit regional biotechnology hub, we intend to grow ILSE by replicating this model in other therapeutic areas in support of our mission of enabling translational science, entrepreneurship and the advancement of human health.”

The announcement was made by Dr. Keith Bostian during a meeting held to inaugurate the new Center at the ILSE facilities with NJCSTM at Kean University in Union and featuring a keynote address by Barry Kriesworth, Ph.D., Director, Laboratory for Molecular Drug Resistance, Public Health Research Institute.

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