SARomics Biostructures is now located in our new laboratory building
SARomics Biostructures is the third tenant in our state-of-the-art laboratory building for advanced research and medical development. In this 12,500-square-metre, four-floor building, they now occupy the western part of the ground floor.
What began as a protein crystallisation facility at the old MAX-lab, established by former Active Biotech staff members Björn Walse and Bo Svensson, together with professors Derek Logan, Salam Al-Karadaghi, and Mikael Akke 18 years ago, has grown into a technology-driven research company specialising in protein structure determination and rational drug development using structure-based design. SARomics’ platform for robotic protein crystallisation, structure determination through X-ray crystallography and NMR, as well as computational chemistry, is offered as research services to clients but is also applied in a number of innovative early-stage in-house drug discovery projects.
What hasn’t changed is that the founders still hold almost all of the shares. They have grown the business organically at a steady pace, increasing revenues by an average of 10-20 percent annually, to today’s SEK 30 million. With only two-thirds of the current space occupied, there is room for further expansion moving forward.
– Medicon Village has been crucial for our organic growth. As the company grew, we gradually acquired new premises in the area. With our current location in the new laboratory building, which is designed specifically for our needs, we are well-prepared to take on new challenges, both with regard to new clients and projects. A sign of our optimism is that we currently are recruiting three new colleagues, and since August, we have had a sales office in the Bay Area in the US, where a majority of our clients are located, says CEO Björn Walse.
The new laboratory building strengthens Medicon Village’s role as the natural hub for research and entrepreneurship in life sciences in southern Sweden. It provides opportunities for existing companies like Alligator Bioscience, Cellevate, Redoxis, SARomics Biostructures, and Truly Labs to expand, while also allowing new companies to establish themselves at Medicon Village as existing members move into the new building, generating chains of relocations.
We plan to hold a formal inauguration of the building on the same day the recipients of donations from our owning foundation are announced (18 October), followed by an Open House on 28 January.