Some biomedical researchers at the University of Rhode Island may be working toward breakthroughs in cancer studies, environmental health sciences and neuroscience. But sometimes, they’re fighting for elbow room, too.
URI President Marc B. Parlange says that with hundreds of students and faculty members using the limited amount of biotech labs on the university’s main campus in South Kingstown, there just isn’t enough room to accommodate them all properly.
“We are already packing in two to three research groups in spaces meant for one group with so many faculty [members] and students,” Parlange said.
That predicament is in the process of changing now that URI has been given the go-ahead to build a state-of-the-art biomedical lab on the South Kingstown campus just as state officials are focused on assembling the infrastructure to make Rhode Island a life sciences hub with high-paying jobs and plenty of trained people to fill them.
When voters statewide approved a $160.5 million higher education facilities bond measure in November, it cleared the way for the university to use an $87.5 million chunk of the money to plan and construct the four-story building on the “science quad” along Flagg Road.
(Another $73 million has been earmarked for renovations to the Rhode Island College Institute of Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies.)
But it’s not just about creating more lab space. It’s the type of space that will allow URI and other researchers in the state to conduct more advanced life sciences work.
“This new lab is going to allow us to do things right, and properly support them all in their research,” Parlange said.
The lack of wet lab space – which is designed to handle chemicals, biological materials and other substances in controlled conditions – in the state has prevented faculty members and students from advancing crucial biomed research and training.
Such work encompasses everything from cancer research to the creation of new medical devices and pharmaceutical advancements.
“There has never been wet lab space in Rhode Island,” said Neil D. Steinberg, chairman of the R.I. Life Science Hub, the quasi-public agency overseeing the state’s effort to develop the life sciences sector. “Students and companies would have to leave the state to do the field’s most important work.”
The planned URI lab is expected to include a wet lab and incubator space intended to support startups and entrepreneurs, but the project remains in the early development phase, according to the university.
Wet labs typically feature heated, insulated chambers, Steinberg says. Such chambers create controlled environments in which researchers can grow and develop microbiological and cell cultures.
A similar life sciences lab is already under construction in the I-195 Innovation & Design District in Providence and will include wet labs, dry labs and incubator space. The seven-story building, which will house the new state health lab, as well as academic and commercial life science companies, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, the URI facility is slated to be completed and operational by 2028, located adjacent to buildings that house the pharmacy, engineering, biotech and life sciences programs. URI officials say the new biomed building, which could be as big as 50,000 square feet, will be shared among those programs.
In fact, the new lab should alleviate the space crunch in the other science buildings.
As of now, the project is in the “request for proposals” phase, URI says, which will help determine the scope of a project.
“In the next few years, I expect there to be a lot of biomedical startup ribbon-cutting in Rhode Island,” said Steinberg, whose organization has been tasked with strengthening the life sciences sector in the state, helping to secure grants and funding for biomed projects such as URI’s laboratory.
“We’re a small state, and we have to realize that and use it to our advantage,” Steinberg said. “[These] incubator labs will be used by every biomed company [in Rhode Island]. We can keep it all in-house in the Ocean State.”
Meanwhile, Parlange says URI is already developing members of what is turning out to be a much-needed workforce.
More than 6,000 University of Rhode Island students are studying in fields related to biomed sciences, according to Parlange. The school offers a number of biomedical programs, including bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering, as well as minors in biomed and pharmaceutical sciences.
In 2023-2024 alone, the university issued more than 1,200 degrees in biomed sciences, Parlange says. And he expects those figures to grow in the coming years, as demand for trained workers rises.
Employment for biomedical engineers is projected to grow faster than all other occupations from 2023 to 2033, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
In Rhode Island, more than 5,700 people are employed in the life sciences, and the state is home to hundreds of biomed-related companies, according to Parlange.
In 2023, the U.S. biotechnology market was valued at over $553 billion and is expected to hit more than $1.7 trillion by 2033.
Parlange says the state is poised to capitalize, despite regional competition across New England.
“Rhode Island, in general, we are in an incredible location,” Parlange said. “We can be the centerpiece of the regional strength for biomed, [between] Boston, Worcester, Mass., Connecticut and westward.”