{"id":137183,"date":"2025-09-06T13:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T13:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/137183\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T13:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T13:45:09","slug":"c2ns-expansion-boosts-stls-bioscience-startup-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/137183\/","title":{"rendered":"C2N\u2019s expansion boosts STL’s bioscience startup ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

The announcement<\/a> this week that homegrown St. Louis startup C2N Diagnostics<\/a> is roughly tripling the size of its local operations suggests a momentum for the regional innovation ecosystem that supports similar bioscience upstarts.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s, says Dr. Joel Braunstein, C2N\u2019s CEO. Currently, those are run through the space it occupies in the BioSTL building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Braunstein says. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

C2N\u2019s existing footprint in one of the Cortex Innovation District buildings as well as in the BioSTL building won\u2019t change, but Braunstein expects all of the company\u2019s CAP<\/a>-accredited CLIA<\/a>-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.<\/p>\n

Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.\"20250903Catalyst will house bioscience startups, offering office and spaces, plus shared areas.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re humbled to be able to occupy the new facility,\u201d says Braunstein. \u201cI feel like we\u2019ll be able to lead by example. We think it will become an important vehicle for attracting new organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

WashU vice chancellor for innovation and commercialization Doug Frantz agrees. He says there\u2019s not enough high-quality lab space in the region for emerging bioscience companies to expand into when they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Franz says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have that space, it\u2019s almost like you\u2019re stymieing the technology from the get-go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cortex CEO Sam Fiorello put it in more stark terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have zero vacant lab space right now,\u201d he says, especially after Varro Life Sciences <\/a>scooped up the last remaining lab space Cortex had available.<\/p>\n

Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.\"20250903The former Goodwill complex on Forest Park is being redeveloped into Catalyst: Powered by WashU.<\/p>\n

But the $100 million development also wasn\u2019t always a done deal. In December, members of the Board of Aldermen were teetering<\/a> 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\u2019s tax increment financing for the project, but Fiorello says it was a close call.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have lost them,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were heavily recruited, but we kept them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Alderman Michael Browning, whose ninth ward includes the new Catalyst building, the saga is a \u201clesson learned\u201d for the city\u2014although he adds that he shares his colleagues\u2019 desire to ensure that any deals they make benefits St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat the incentives are necessary and that we\u2019re not just giving away things for free, that\u2019s good stewardship of our city,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m so glad that the city could play its part in making that happen, because now what we\u2019re going to have is news headlines about the progress this company is making coming right out of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s success \u201cwould not be possible without the people who are local to the St. Louis ecosystem,\u201d there are many factors a growth-stage company must consider to sustain its trajectory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being a good steward of the capital that comes in from our investors, we have to always look at multiple different factors,\u201d he says. \u201cLong 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\u2019t have committed to the Catalyst building if we didn\u2019t think that was the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Franz, C2N\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like C2N serves as an anchor, just like a grocery store serves as an anchor for an entire business district,\u201d he says. \u201cWe hope this is going to serve as that catalyst that continues to build these companies\u2019 momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.Rendering Courtesy of HOK and Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.\"20250903A rendering of the interior of the Catalyst building.<\/p>\n

He adds he\u2019s heard from WashU alumni spread across the country who are \u201cchomping at the bit\u201d to come back to St. Louis if only there were more space and opportunity.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t take our eye off the ball,\u201d he says. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The announcement this week that homegrown St. Louis startup C2N Diagnostics is roughly tripling the size of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[28,158],"class_list":{"0":"post-137183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}