- LifeSciKY opens its new 15,000-square-foot wet lab at the OneNKY Center in Covington, positioning Northern Kentucky as a life sciences hub.
- Three biotech startups—PAN Biologics, Clareo Biosciences, and Simbryo Technologies—announced plans to relocate into the space.
- The companies focus on breakthrough innovations in cancer therapy, immune profiling, and fertility treatment, supported by local grants and partnerships.
Kuntal De understands the urgency required in cancer treatment.
Earlier this year, the founder of PAN Biologics lost his aunt to a particularly aggressive form of cancer. He said this personal experience drove his company’s mission to develop targeted alpha-emitter radiotherapy for glioblastoma. De’s therapy isolates cancer cells so healthy cells can stay unaffected by the side effects of chemotherapy.
“My aunt actually passed away two months back, like after diagnosis,” De said. “So this is real. This is real, and patients are having side effects because of irradiation.”
De, a biochemist by trade, founded PAN Biologics in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2024. De received a $10,000 grant, sponsored by Erlanger-based McD Concrete, to relocate his startup to Covington. For LifeSciKY, attracting innovative startups to relocate to Covington will help boost the region’s reputation as an innovation hub.
Christin Godale, executive director of LifeSciKY, celebrated the grand opening of its state-of-the-art life sciences lab at the newly opened OneNKY Center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 12, giving the public its first look.
Before the ribbon-cutting, LifeSciKY hosted a kickoff event at DBL Law where the organization unveiled grant funding rounds for the startups relocating to the OneNKY Center. LifeSciKY is a life sciences startup incubator and advocacy organization based out of the OneNKY Center.
The organization, founded in 2022, features a 15,000-square-foot wet laboratory on the second floor of the building, which will host cutting-edge life sciences startups.
“LifeSciKy–we’re bringing startups here, we’re nurturing them and hopefully kind of pushing them back out into our economy, and hopefully they stay and grow here with us,” she said.
PAN Biologics was one of three companies Godale announced would be relocating to Covington.
In addition to PAN Biologics, Clareo Biosciences, a Louisville-based company, will move into OneNKY Center laboratory. Clareo, founded by Melissa Smith, has developed a genomic technology that sequences DNA and analyzes RNA expression to create a detailed profile of an individual’s immune system.
By crafting a personalized immune system profile, Clareo utilizes artificial intelligence to assess how an individual may respond to specific therapies, evaluate their risk of developing autoimmune conditions, and estimate the likelihood of benefiting from cancer immunotherapy.
“We’re really excited about this partnership with LifeSciKY to get us boosted up beyond our initial stages and get the news out there of what we can really do with our technology,” she said.
Similar to De, Smith also received a $10,000 grant, courtesy of Newport-based New Riff Distilling, titled Bourbon for Science.
Simbryo Technologies, a Houston-based startup that develops endometrial organoids for infertility treatment, is also moving into the laboratory. Founded by Dr. Yael Katz, Simbryo strives to improve in vitro fertilization success rates, a process that is often costly and uncertain. Simbryo is already working with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Katz said.
“Right now, when people do IVF, they’re just really hoping for the best–like hope it will work,” she said. “What we’re doing with our endometrial organoids is we’re able to help people to guide them in creating personalized protocols to optimize their chances of being able to have a baby, which is very important.”
As of now, each of the three startups is in the process of relocating to Covington.