Astellas Pharma Inc. officially opened its new Astellas Life Sciences Center (ALSC) in Cambridge, Mass., which will accelerate the company's efforts to create an innovation network across the state, connecting leading incubators, ambitious biotechnology start-ups and academia to foster the discovery and development of potential breakthrough therapies in areas of significant medical need.
The new LEED-certified construction is home to the company's first U.S.-based SakuLab™, a shared laboratory space for highly innovative external partners. The new ALSC will also house the company's Engineered Small Molecules (ESM) unit which focuses on advancing research into targeted protein degradation, a novel treatment approach aimed at removing specific proteins from cells to unlock targets that have previously been considered 'undruggable.'
Approximately 400 Astellas employees will operate out of the new building, representing Medical & Development, Business Development and Research. By providing shared R&D resources, flexible workspaces, and dedicated areas for cross-functional and partner collaboration, the new facility enables Astellas teams to work together more cohesively and capitalize on the diverse expertise within the company and outside our walls to trailblaze the next generation of healthcare solutions.
Tadaaki Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, Astellas
"Our new Astellas Life Sciences Center and open innovation SakuLab will advance our efforts to deliver breakthrough therapies and novel modalities, with a focus on areas of high unmet need. It will also strengthen our partnerships with local academic institutions and biotech innovators, underpinning our commitment to pursue transformative treatments in oncology, ophthalmology and rare diseases for patients in need."
Fostering External Research Collaborations to Nurture Innovation and Drug Discovery
The SakuLab at Cambridge joins SakuLab-Tsukuba, the company's first incubator space located at Astellas' flagship research campus in Japan, and the TME iLAB in Kashiwa, which serves as an open innovation hub for tumor microenvironment research.
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