California State University Auxiliary Services, Inc.

Los Angeles County, California, is home to more than 10 million residents and is a dynamic center for innovation, business and trade. While the county has world-leading universities and research centers and a strong bioscience industry employment base, there are gaps to address in order to maximize the region’s potential for commercialization of bioscience innovations and economic development. Recently, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted a regional Master Plan for bioscience economic development which includes the following initiatives: bioscience commercialization, lab space development, bioscience talent development and marketing/branding. California State University, Los Angeles was awarded an i6 Challenge grant from the EDA to address the shortages of well-trained bioscience entrepreneurs/leaders in the region.

We proposed LABioStart: a Boot Camp for Bioscience Entrepreneurs, a countywide collaborative effort to address the severe shortage of bioscience talent, especially C-level executives and entrepreneurs, and to promote bioscience innovations, and facilitate networking and collaborations among bioscience stakeholders in LA County. The project will leverage the distinct strengths of three primary partner organizations (project lead California State University, Los Angeles, Biocom and LA Cleantech Incubator) and will engage local governments and additional partner organizations to develop suites of training modules in business fundamentals, leadership skills and bioscience business capabilities. We will recruit, support and provide training to 60 emerging entrepreneurs within three years to facilitate creating startup companies to commercialize discoveries into bioscience products and services.

Additionally, LA BioStart will host innovation showcases and bioscience networking events for regional entrepreneurs, experts, investors and other stakeholders to strengthen the bioscience ecosystem in greater Los Angeles. We anticipate this scalable and replicable model program will make significant contributions to the regional Master Plan in promoting bioscience innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development in the county.