Eli Lilly and Co. plans to open a Lilly Gateway Labs location in San Diego, CA in the first half of 2024. Gateway Labs is Lilly’s shared innovation accelerator that provides participating companies with state-of-the-art lab space and access to Lilly scientists, researchers, and executives, as well as exposure to Lilly’s functional and scientific expertise.

This marks the company’s third Gateway Labs location, with additional sites located in San Francisco and Boston.

Companies located at Gateway Labs can collaborate with Lilly and each other on research of mutual interest, participate in shared learning and scientific symposia with Lilly experts and partners, and have the potential for financial investment directly from Lilly, venture capital funds, or both. The new site will merge Lilly’s scientific expertise with Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (ARE) operational excellence to create a world-class facility.

The new site will be located in Alexandria’s University Town Center (UTC) campus, and will offer nearly 62,000 square feet of rentable lab space, as well as open workstations for fostering scientific exchange and collaboration. It is expected to accommodate 10 companies and more than 120 biotech and Lilly employees.

“We are excited to expand our footprint in San Diego as it is home to a thriving life sciences community,” said Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer, and president, Lilly Research Laboratories. “By providing lab space and access to Lilly’s scientific expertise, we can support scientists from research institutes, universities and small biotech companies as they work to discover the next generation of medicines for patients.”

Julie Gilmore, vice president, and global head of Gateway Labs, said, “Lilly has been supporting early-phase external innovation for decades, and we are excited to continue to expand our Gateway Labs shared innovation spaces to a larger network of life science startups. The expansion of our Gateway Labs model will grant scientists access to Lilly’s research operations, mentorship and expertise in an environment made to foster scientific breakthroughs.”