{"id":2370,"date":"2016-11-14T21:08:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T05:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/extra\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:37:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:37:53","slug":"wsu-innovation-center-serves-startup-incubator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/campus-community\/wsu-innovation-center-serves-startup-incubator\/","title":{"rendered":"WSU Innovation Center serves as startup incubator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WSU<\/a><\/p>\n

Iasis Molecular Sciences employees Dana Walters (background) and Scott Nordahl work in the WSU Innovation Center.<\/i><\/p>\n

(This story appears in the latest edition of the <\/i>WSU Spokane Magazine<\/i><\/span><\/a>)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kevin Dudley<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the southwest side<\/span> of the WSU Spokane campus sits the WSU Innovation Center<\/a>\u00a0in a building owned by Ignite Northwest, a local business accelerator.<\/span><\/p>\n

WSU Spokane is the primary tenant and has been sub-leasing space to local startups since the beginning of the year in an effort to grow the entrepreneurship community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, the Innovation Center is at capacity with<\/span> five startups leasing space. It offers both wet lab and non-wet lab space and office space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Ebinger, Ph.D., the director of the center, says startups there enjoy opportunities to grow in a nice facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA benefit of being here is that you have the only wet lab space available in town,\u201d he said. \u201cAnother advantage is that we can work with startups on rental rates.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Those opportunities, Ebinger said, depend on what stage the startup is in. However, there is no list of qualifications set in stone just yet because the Innovation Center wants to be flexible for businesses just starting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being an incubator provides an early boost for startups before they can work with Ignite, the business accelerator that helps more established businesses grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re interested in taking companies that are starting out and need space to grow,\u201d Ebinger said. <\/span><\/p>\n

WSU Spokane has only been in the incubator business for a short time, but Ebinger and WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown, Ph.D., are working together to come up with a long-term plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

They appreciate the work being done by Startup Spokane and the Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane to help innovators. \u201cSpokane is creating an eco-system of commercialization and WSU is proud to be a part of that,\u201d Brown said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iasis Molecular Sciences<\/a> is an example of a tenant in the Innovation Center. It develops materials to address the transmission of infectious diseases. Iasis had space in the old SIRTI building (now the Health Education Research Building on the WSU Spokane campus). <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Innovation Center is a bit more modern and there are others in the facility that share some common interests,\u201d said David Vachon, Ph.D., Iasis\u2019 CEO. \u201cThis may lead to collaboration down the road.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Being near a research university gives companies like Iasis more resources to use. Vachon said his company has collaborated with the College of Pharmacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said having access to a university\u2019s research space means his company could be present for research results and feedback, as opposed to working with a lab far away. <\/span><\/p>\n

The WSU Innovation Center is another part of Spokane\u2019s entrepreneur efforts. Pairing research and entrepreneurship in close proximity helps create ideas, jobs and commerce.<\/span><\/p>\n

In between the time businesses begin as an idea and the time they grow to full-blown, profitable companies, there are stages those businesses go through. The Innovation Center and Ignite Northwest work closely to ensure their efforts don\u2019t overlap and that the betterment of the startups is the top priority.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we aren\u2019t stepping on each other\u2019s toes and that we\u2019re interfacing with each other so that when my clients got to the point where they could use an accelerator, we\u2019d have a nice handoff,\u201d Ebinger said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Innovation Center Tenants<\/h3>\n

Allele Diagnostics, Inc.<\/strong><\/a> provides rapid and high quality genetic testing services.<\/p>\n

Biobit, LLC<\/strong><\/a> develops antibodies for various assays in food and water products using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as a biosensor.<\/p>\n

ChalkLabs, LLC<\/strong> specializes in Knowledge Discovery and Data Visualization solutions.<\/p>\n

H-Source<\/strong><\/a> is a private marketplace for hospitals and surgery centers to buy and sell medical products and equipment with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Novion Technologies\/Iasis Molecular<\/strong><\/a> develops antimicrobial surface technologies for protecting patients in the clinic from health care-related infections.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iasis Molecular Sciences employees Dana Walters (background) and Scott Nordahl work in the WSU Innovation Center. (This story appears in the latest edition of the WSU Spokane Magazine) By Kevin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":2372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1513],"tags":[1299,974,455,1300,1298,447,1090],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4216,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions\/4216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spokane.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}