MUSC's Blue Sky Labs, 'epicenter of innovation,' opens in Charleston

Blue Sky Labs, an incubation space for start-ups and early-stage companies focusing on life sciences and medical research, has opened on the edge of the Medical University of South Carolina’s Charleston campus. The field of life sciences deals with living things and processes, ranging from microorganisms to plants to people.

At the Nov. 21 ribbon cutting ceremony at 280 Calhoun St., MUSC President David Cole, M.D., called Blue Sky Labs “a place where life-changing ideas can be brought to life.”

“That’s a tagline, but it’s real. It'll be an epicenter of innovation with 3,000 square feet of dedicated wet lab space, gathering space, places for different entities and people to talk, to collaborate,” Cole said. Wet labs are carefully designed places where scientists handle chemicals and other hazardous materials.

There are more than 20 leasable wet labs at Blue Sky. The former College of Pharmacy building also has office suites, meeting areas and workspaces, taking up a total of 10,000 square feet of space so far.

It already has tenants, too. Blue Sky Labs was 80% full on its official opening day.

SCbio is one of those tenants. The statewide nonprofit organization advocates and speaks for life sciences in South Carolina. It’s big business – life sciences has an annual economic impact of more than $25 billion in the state. SCbio President and CEO James Chappell called Blue Sky Labs “an innovation district within a building.”

“We have a really close relationship with MUSC, always, because they're such a driver of innovation in the state. And we were looking for more lab space as we recruit companies. Charleston is such a big spot,” he said.

That relationship allowed SCbio to offer lab space to companies that didn’t originate at MUSC, Chappell said – a development he believes benefits everyone. “What we've got to do is create that ecosystem where founders can talk to other founders, mentors, have access to equipment and facilities they might not normally have access to.”

Jesse Goodwin, Ph.D., is leading the way in bringing that ecosystem to life. She’s chief innovation officer at MUSC and head of Blue Sky Labs. Goodwin said the ribbon cutting was the beginning of something big during MUSC’s bicentennial year.

“I'm particularly excited to kick off today's ribbon cutting ceremony because it's probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something that is paradoxically a milestone in a 200-year journey, but also the initial step toward a much bigger vision.”

That vision involves MUSC’s dedication to making innovation one of its top priorities. Blue Sky Labs is the latest development in that area for a campus that has an  Office of Innovation, prizes  cultivating a culture of innovation, supports innovators, honors them with  awards and  names innovation as one of its five core values.

That focus on innovation was clear at the ribbon cutting. “MUSC as a culture, I would say, always leans into the future,” Cole said.

“Blue Sky Labs embodies our commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, innovation, collaboration, so that we can have the environment to truly make an impact and to develop things that we can only dream of in today's world, but are desperately needed, certainly in the world of health care space and what that looks like.”