Mayor Adams Invests $27 Million To Accelerate Growth Of Life Sciences In NY

August 24, 2022

City Awards to City College and Mount Sinai Will Create Hundreds of Jobs and Support New Startups and Next Generation of Innovation and Research

Mayor Adams’ Vision Has NYC on Path to Become Global Leader in Life Sciences, Create 40,000 Family-Sustaining Jobs in Next Decade

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) President and CEO Andrew Kimball today awarded $26.6 million to further spur the growth of New York City’s life sciences industry and create family-sustaining jobs for New Yorkers. Through NYCEDC’s $1 billion LifeSci NYC initiative, the city is awarding $15 million to the City College of New York (CCNY) and $11.6 million to the Mount Sinai Health System. Both awards will support the construction of new facilities that will allow the creation of new life sciences startups in the city and promote the next generation of talent and world-class innovation — creating jobs, connecting research to industry, and advancing health care and technology.

“With these awards, our administration is making critical investments in the health and prosperity of New Yorkers,” said Mayor Adams. “Life sciences are central to our city’s public health and economic recovery, and we will continue to marshal the resources necessary to grow this industry, create new economic opportunities for New Yorkers, and keep our city moving forward.”

The Taystee Lab Building in West Harlem, where CCNY’s City Innovations Collaborative will be housed. Credit: Janus Property Group

A rendering of Mount Sinai’s Comprehensive Center for Surgical Innovation. Credit: Mount Sinai Health System

“This multimillion-dollar investment will further grow the life sciences sector in New York City and support the next generation of talent through strategic partnerships with City College and Mount Sinai,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer. “It will support new startups that drive medical and engineering innovation, while creating new opportunities for students in these critically important and growing fields.”

“We are thrilled to make these awards to Mount Sinai and City College,” said NYCEDC President and CEO Kimball. “When we make strategic investments in our leading institutions, we can drive groundbreaking research, create jobs, and advance treatments, cures, and health care technologies in New York City. Under Mayor Adams, we will solidify our city’s place at the forefront of the life sciences sector and lead in making new medical devices to help improve patient care.”

CCNY will bring online the “City Innovations Collaborative,” an incubator supporting commercial and academic life sciences innovation and research under one roof at the Taystee Lab Building in West Harlem’s Manhattanville Factory District. With 36,000 square feet, the collaborative will offer early-stage life sciences companies state-of-the-art wet and dry lab space for the development of new medications and medical devices that address the needs of the surrounding underserved communities.

Over its first 10 years, the collaborative is estimated to catalyze:

• The creation of over 1,400 family-sustaining life science jobs in Greater Harlem,
• The employment and training of more than 275 fellows and interns,
• The creation and/or attraction of more than 100 new life sciences ventures,
• The acceleration of 150 new medical technology products, and
• The deployment of more than $290 million in seed and venture capital.

Mount Sinai will build one of the only medical device prototyping facilities in the nation, embedded on a hospital campus to support startups, engineers, doctors, and surgeons in designing, testing, and commercializing new medical devices to help improve patient care and outcomes. The Comprehensive Center for Surgical Innovation will be a 7,000-square-foot surgical research facility with an imaging and rapid prototyping facility on the Mount Sinai West hospital campus. Each year, the center is expected to support 10-12 startups, 50-60 prototypes, and 10-12 medical devices.

This investment follows a major new partnership that Mayor Adams announced in April to support cutting-edge research, entrepreneurial training programs, and workforce development by advancing two life science projects that will nearly double lab space in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, helping cement it as a major hub for the city’s life science industry. In just a few months the Adams administration has taken action to continue supporting the exponential growth of the life sciences sector by expanding the LifeSci NYC Internship program, forming a new Real Estate Life Sciences Advisory Board, and expanding the LifeSci NYC Advisory Council. According to a recent report from the New York City Department of City Planning and NYCEDC, the city is part of a thriving tri-state region that created 150,000 jobs in the sector last year, resulting in about $23 billion in wages.

“The City Innovations Collaborative is being created as part of City College’s vision to harness its research and innovation capabilities to generate greater positive impact for the communities we serve,” said Andrew Wooten, senior director, innovation management and business development, CCNY. “It will be a physical and virtual workshop where aligned stakeholders can come together to co-create a better future for New York City. I am pleased that our team — including Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Jeffrey Garanich, who directs our master’s degree program in Translational Medicine, vice president and senior advisor to the president Dee Dee Mozeleski, the college’s academic leadership, NYCEDC, Janus Property, Mount Sinai, and other regional stakeholders — were able to achieve this important milestone towards the realization of our shared vision.”

“Mount Sinai has been in a leader in the innovation space, with the primary goals of solving complex health issues for patients and advancing science and medicine,” said Evan Flatow, MD, Bernard J. Lasker professor of orthopedic surgery; president, Mount Sinai West; and director, Comprehensive Center for Surgical Innovation. “Throughout my career, I’ve been involved in surgical innovation, leading efforts to develop next-generation joint replacements. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to build a surgical innovation lab at Mount Sinai to bring surgical discoveries and innovative methods into commercial health solutions that benefit patients. This dream is now a reality thanks to the support of the mayor and NYCEDC. The investment in the Comprehensive Center for Surgical Innovation will enable rapid development of new breakthroughs and products, along with new commercial enterprises that result in sustainable job creation and economic growth.”

“This is a game changer, and, as technology continues to grow in leaps and bounds, this significant award to the City College of New York and Mount Sinai will help support the construction of new life science facilities. It will also advance the research and training and bolster the growth of new innovative opportunities for startups and technology leaders throughout New York City,” said U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat. “I commend all who worked to make today’s announcement possible, and I look forward to witnessing the continued success of programs that will benefit residents throughout our communities.”

“This initiative harnesses the best of Mount Sinai Health System and the City College of New York in order to advance medical innovation and STEM careers for young New Yorkers,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “Through an equitable framework, this investment will help grow the city’s next generation of life scientists, provide hundreds of excellent jobs in West Harlem, and make medical discoveries that we can only dream of today.”

“It’s time to ignite revolutionary innovation in our community,” said New York City Councilmember Shaun Abreu. “I am proud to have helped bring millions in capital infrastructure investment to the City Innovations Collaborative at the Taystee Lab Building in West Harlem. Our students, scientists, and community will benefit from the medical advances that take place here. I can’t wait to see it in action!”

“This new surgical innovation center will expand Mount Sinai BioDesign, the medical technology incubator of the health system, to new heights thanks to this key investment by the mayor and NYCEDC,” said Joshua Bederson, MD, Leonard I. Malis and Corinne/Joseph Graber professor and chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Mount Sinai Health System. “Mount Sinai BioDesign’s mission is to help patients by creating technological solutions to their medical problems, to generate jobs and high-value assets, and to educate a diversified generation of engineers, scientists, and clinicians. We envision a crosscutting incubator lab where our talented scientists, programs, prototyping, and testing will bring new devices to market that promise to change the future of medicine and surgery.”

“Together with the mayor and NYCEDC, we aim to build a center of excellence in surgical innovation that will attract national and global collaborators to New York City to solve today’s most intricate challenges in medicine,” said Erik Lium, PhD, chief commercial innovation officer, Mount Sinai Health System; and president, Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. “Mount Sinai has tremendous momentum in innovation, actualizing many achievements and successes in patient-centric solutions, and bringing these to the market and to the patients that need them. The new surgical innovation center, alongside existing and future academic and industry partners will harness research, clinical, and commercial strengths to rapidly advance breakthrough devices to the clinic.”

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