The announcement this week that homegrown St. Louis startup C2N Diagnostics is roughly tripling the size of its local operations suggests a momentum for the regional innovation ecosystem that supports similar bioscience upstarts.
C2N is set to become the anchor tenant of a $100 million development project backed by Washington University to transform the former Goodwill Industries complex on Forest Park Ave. into a hub for bioscience startups looking to expand.
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The new headquarters for C2N will allow the company to increase the volume of diagnostic tests it can handle. The company is built around clinical tests, primarily from blood, that provide biomarker measurements, which can improve the accuracy of neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s, says Dr. Joel Braunstein, C2N’s CEO. Currently, those are run through the space it occupies in the BioSTL building.
“What really stimulated the growth for the company and the basis for the expansion is that five years ago, we took some of the underlying platform in biomarker measurements and developed clinical tests that can be used in clinical care,” Braunstein says. “We continue to see a significant increase in the demand for clinical lab testing, particularly for North America. That new facility becomes an important component to be able to meet the growing clinical demands.”
C2N’s existing footprint in one of the Cortex Innovation District buildings as well as in the BioSTL building won’t change, but Braunstein expects all of the company’s CAP-accredited CLIA-certified lab space to be in the new facility, while its space in BioSTL will shift toward more research and development. The company also expects to hire significantly given the expansion.
Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.
Catalyst will house bioscience startups, offering office and spaces, plus shared areas.
C2N is set to occupy just over half of the 163,000 square feet in the new development, dubbed Catalyst: Powered by WashU. It plans to begin moving into the space in late 2026. Once renovated, the rest of the seven-story midcentury building and new four-story addition will provide desperately needed lab, office, and other space for up-and-coming bioscience companies.
“We’re humbled to be able to occupy the new facility,” says Braunstein. “I feel like we’ll be able to lead by example. We think it will become an important vehicle for attracting new organizations.”
WashU vice chancellor for innovation and commercialization Doug Frantz agrees. He says there’s not enough high-quality lab space in the region for emerging bioscience companies to expand into when they’re ready.
“What we lack as an ecosystem, as a local community, is this graduation space to really remain or keep that trajectory, for these innovations, these founders, to find the space, to continue to push their technologies towards commercialization,” Franz says. “If you don’t have that space, it’s almost like you’re stymieing the technology from the get-go.”
Cortex CEO Sam Fiorello put it in more stark terms.
“We have zero vacant lab space right now,” he says, especially after Varro Life Sciences scooped up the last remaining lab space Cortex had available.
Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.
The former Goodwill complex on Forest Park is being redeveloped into Catalyst: Powered by WashU.
But the $100 million development also wasn’t always a done deal. In December, members of the Board of Aldermen were teetering on whether to grant incentives to Cortex and WashU to get the development over the finish line. The board eventually approved $36 million in bonds and a $4 million allocation of Cortex’s tax increment financing for the project, but Fiorello says it was a close call.
“We could have lost them,” he says. “They were heavily recruited, but we kept them.”
To Alderman Michael Browning, whose ninth ward includes the new Catalyst building, the saga is a “lesson learned” for the city—although he adds that he shares his colleagues’ desire to ensure that any deals they make benefits St. Louis.
“That the incentives are necessary and that we’re not just giving away things for free, that’s good stewardship of our city,” he says. “I’m so glad that the city could play its part in making that happen, because now what we’re going to have is news headlines about the progress this company is making coming right out of our city.”
C2N had been courted to move to Deerfield, Illinois, or Boulder, Colorado. Braunstein says that while the company always aspired to stay rooted, as much of the company’s success “would not be possible without the people who are local to the St. Louis ecosystem,” there are many factors a growth-stage company must consider to sustain its trajectory.
“Just being a good steward of the capital that comes in from our investors, we have to always look at multiple different factors,” he says. “Long term, there was always the hope that St. Louis and the state of Missouri would be able to support our next phase of growth. Obviously we wouldn’t have committed to the Catalyst building if we didn’t think that was the case.”
To Franz, C2N’s presence plus city and state support send a clear signal to other bioscience companies and talent that St. Louis is an attractive place to locate to.
“Something like C2N serves as an anchor, just like a grocery store serves as an anchor for an entire business district,” he says. “We hope this is going to serve as that catalyst that continues to build these companies’ momentum.”
Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.
A rendering of the interior of the Catalyst building.
He adds he’s heard from WashU alumni spread across the country who are “chomping at the bit” to come back to St. Louis if only there were more space and opportunity.
St. Louis still needs to proactively develop more space for similar companies, Fiorello warns, before they really need it. New lab space can take years to build from scratch, and doing so can be a tough sell versus moving into something like the space in the Goodwill building, which he describes as ready for companies to customize, whether they want clean rooms, fume hoods, uninterrupted power, or other amenities.
Dozens more companies in the St. Louis region are at the early stage of development compared to when C2N was at a similar size more than a decade ago, adds Donn Rubin, founding president and CEO of BioSTL.
“We can’t take our eye off the ball,” he says. “We need the next building, and we need to be planning for those right now, because there is a pipeline of some really strong St. Louis companies that we want to blossom here.”