Proximity to expertise, access to educated talent among the attributes cited
RefinedScience, an emerging biosciences company working to transform precision drug development, has selected Fitzsimons Innovation Community in Aurora as its Colorado headquarters. Fitzsimons Innovation Community, an integrated campus of facilities for innovative health and life sciences companies, announced the agreement Wednesday.
RefinedScience already operates within the Fitzsimons Innovation Community. With Wednesday’s announcement, it will transition from The Foundry, a CU Innovations incubator housed in Bioscience 1, to permanent lab and office space in Bioscience 3.
RefinedScience aims to change the way data is used to improve patient outcomes. The company designs smarter clinical trials that can move previously stalled drugs through the clinical stage and on to market where they can start helping patients. Started as part of CU Innovations, RefinedScience has evolved from a clinical decision support tool into a novel new precision medicine platform.
The leadership team looked at other cities for life sciences incubation and development and ultimately chose Fitzsimons Innovation Community to allow them to remain close to the team of experts they consult on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and to have custom lab space in the right size for their initial location, knowing that the room they need to grow is available to them when they’re ready. With new hires on the horizon, a location in Colorado also gives them access to the highly educated talent pool for which the state is known.
“We were born out of this University (of Colorado), and we continue to have extremely strong ties to it,” said RefinedScience CEO Erik Johnson. “We’ve obviously evolved and now have our own identity, too, but we’ve learned that bringing the best of academia and the best of industry together can create the best company, so we never want to lose that connection.”
Kimberly Muller, executive director of CU Innovations and co-founder of RefinedScience, said the presence of the emerging company strengthens CU Innovations’ leadership in precision medicine.
“This endeavor is reshaping the very landscape of clinical trial design,” she said. “Fitzsimons Innovation Community has the infrastructure in place to support our bold approach which promises to accelerate discoveries, propelling us toward tailored therapies that cater to the unique needs of each patient.”
