RoVa Labs at Carilion Clinic is Region’s First Biotech Labs Incubator

We have completed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Roanoke that establishes a biotechnology incubator. Known as RoVa Labs at Carilion Clinic, the incubator will support the growth of research spinoffs and start-up companies as they work to commercialize groundbreaking research.

RoVa Labs is in the heart of the Roanoke Innovation Corridor at 1030 South Jefferson Street, a building previously home to several Carilion clinical services that relocated. We collaborated with Roanoke to transform the building.

“Carilion Clinic encourages creativity, innovation, and an entrepreneurial mindset among all our employees,” said President and CEO Steve Arner. “RoVa Labs at Carilion Clinic is an example of our longstanding commitment to invest in innovation programs, research partnerships, and digital health solutions that are designed to continuously improve outcomes for our patients and communities." 

“The shared lab space will attract existing and start-up businesses in the life sciences, biotechnology and healthcare sectors,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Don Halliwill. “Building the space is just the first step in creating an innovative gathering place for our region’s greatest minds to collaborate with those who have promising new ideas about exciting and challenging projects.”

The MOU brings together Carilion and the City of Roanoke in collaboration with the Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance, Virginia Western Community College, and Virginia Tech. The agreement reinforces the bridges that connect higher education, health services, and industry, bringing together public and private resources to become the region’s first partnership of its kind to manage and develop biotech programming.

Initially using just over half of the 40,000 square foot facility, RoVa Labs will provide access to multiple resources in a single convenient location to support research and commercialization across the region, the Commonwealth, and beyond. Carilion Clinic Innovation (CCI) is one of the building’s first tenants. CCI’s work includes helping Carilion employees with unique ideas for improving healthcare and connecting them to innovation partners like Virginia Tech and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.  

 "We are very excited about the collaboration between our organizations and its potential to support translational research and improve health, not only in Virginia but across the globe," said Michael Friedlander, Virginia Tech's vice president for health sciences and technology and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. "These efforts also lay the groundwork for building an even stronger scientific, technical, and professional biotech workforce in this part of the commonwealth."

“This collaboration represents a powerful investment in the future of health care in our region,” said Lee A. Learman, dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “By integrating innovation, research and clinical insight in the heart of the Roanoke Innovation Corridor, we are creating new opportunities for our students to learn how discovery moves from the lab to the bedside. This environment will help us educate physicians who not only provide exceptional care, but who are prepared to lead, innovate and serve the evolving needs of our community.”

RoVa Labs has numerous features used by health sciences companies including private and open wet-labs, shared equipment, prototyping and medical device support, offices and meeting space, and operational support.

The City of Roanoke received $15.7 million in 2023 from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to create shared lab space in the building that Carilion contributed as matching local funding. The city facilitated and managed the project and contributed a $1.9 million match through American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The project culminates a GO Virginia-funded project that identified the need for biotech sector lab space, access to industry experts, and mentoring, and included construction of a pilot lab facility in Blacksburg, which opened in 2023.

RoVa Labs is based on incubators nationwide that provide specialized labs and high-touch mentorship that bridge the gap between academic discovery and commercial viability. RoVa Labs’ “Tier 1” capabilities allow the Roanoke-Blacksburg region to provide a competitive, lower-cost alternative to saturated markets, addressing “brain drain” and keeping Virginia-born intellectual property in the Commonwealth.

RoVa Labs is expected to create 250 jobs within five years.