SMU News – SMU is expanding its opportunities for collaboration in innovative biotech research by joining Pegasus Park’s growing Biotech+ Hub.
SMU will have space in the fully-equipped 37,000-square-foot biotech facility that offers shared and private laboratory and office spaces for early-stage scientific ventures. Within minutes of downtown Dallas and the UT Southwestern Medical District, Pegasus Park was redeveloped into a 23-acre mixed-use office campus for biotech firms and nonprofit organizations.
BioLabs, a firm that runs shared laboratory facilities around the country, is managing the laboratory space at Pegasus Park’s Biotech+ Hub.
SMU researchers from a wide array of disciplines – including biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, education, and business – will participate in research, development and entrepreneurial activities under the SMU Institute for Computational Biosciences at Pegasus Park. Multiple SMU centers will work under the Institute, including the Center for Drug Discovery, Design, and Delivery, Center for Computational Genomics, AI Institute for Precision Health and Center for Metaverse Immersive Technologies for Health Sciences. All of these are focused on bio-scientific discoveries leveraging advanced computational algorithms and technologies.
“Dallas-Fort Worth is home to exceptional research institutions like ours, nationally renowned healthcare facilities, promising start-up companies and funding for biotech and health care research. But we are all scattered,” said SMU Provost Elizabeth G. Loboa. “Pegasus Park offers the opportunity to bring all of those strengths into a central location. We are excited to give SMU faculty this new opportunity to pursue world-changing research for good and to do so in close proximity to a broad range of academic, medical, corporate and non-profit collaborators.” Loboa said.
Top North Texas healthcare facilities and several nonprofit organizations – including UT Southwestern, Health Wildcatters and Taysha Gene Therapies – have already secured space at Pegasus Park. Researchers from other universities, industry experts, and entrepreneurs and venture capitalists located on the campus also offer opportunities for collaboration.
“In addition to our faculty expertise in biosciences and computational sciences, a unique currency that we bring to the Pegasus Park trading block is SMU’s state-of-the-art high performance computing system, which will be connected to the Institute through a 100-gig fiber link,” said Suku Nair, associate provost for research ad interim and director of SMU’s AT&T Center for Virtualization. READ MORE