Biotech coworking blossoms in Madison
Like many of the young biotechnology companies it incubates, Forward BIOLABS is moving past its own early stage, celebrating the success it’s seen so far by initiating a series of developments that will expand its presence in Madison, launch a second site, and offer a new source of targeted funding for businesses to grow.
The moves come as two of Forward BIOLABS’s stars hit impressive milestones. Elephas, with a novel way to predict cancer treatment’s effectiveness, has notched more than $150 million in private investments, and Axio BioPharma, whose technology speeds drug development, is about to start raising its first major funding round.
“Forward BIOLABS speeds up research and turns ideas into real products faster, strengthening Wisconsin’s position as a leader in biohealth innovation,” says Shayna Hetzel, WEDC’s vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation.
“A state-of-the-art coworking lab, combined with a welcoming on-ramp into the community, draws top talent—founders, scientists, and engineers—who thrive in collaborative ecosystems with robust resources. It signals that Wisconsin is a destination of choice for innovators and entrepreneurs,” Hetzel says.
Boosting biotech
Forward BIOLABS is a specialized coworking community that offers laboratory space to help young biotech companies get off the ground. “We’re a stop on a young company’s journey,” says CEO Jessica Martin Eckerly. “Forward BIOLABS enables them to launch very efficiently and effectively.”
Located in University Research Park (URP), Forward BIOLABS opened in 2018 with a pilot lab, and since 2019, it has been housed at 504 South Rosa Road, with lab benches to accommodate startups with only one or two founders to those with a dozen or more employees. Over the years, Forward BIOLABS has accumulated an estimated $3 million to $4 million worth of equipment, infrastructure, and amenities for all to share.
Launched with support from its founding partners—URP, Promega, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison Gas & Electric, WEDC, and others such as Gilson, J.H. Findorff & Son, and University of Wisconsin-Madison—the goal has been to provide facilities, training, networking, business support, and camaraderie to entrepreneurs so their early funding can go directly into proving their technology and building the company without having to pour money into costly equipment and signing a long-term lease at the outset.
Since the organization began, 55 startups have occupied the space for a time, and so far, they have raised more than a combined $450 million in investments and grants, Martin Eckerly says. About 75% of member companies are biohealth or medical technology companies, while the other 25% are in other industries—such as clean technology or agricultural technology.
About two-thirds of the young businesses are spinoffs from UW-Madison research, but a few came to Forward BIOLABS from other states.
URP managing director Aaron Olver says Forward BIOLABS enhances the research park’s impact.
“URP has spent four decades building the infrastructure for science to flourish, and Forward BIOLABS has added an important component. A researcher with a breakthrough idea no longer faces the choice between spending a quarter-million dollars on lab equipment or abandoning their entrepreneurial dreams. Instead, they can focus their energy and capital on what matters most: turning discovery into impact,” Olver says.
Moving in two directions
With increasing interest in its program, Forward BIOLABS will be moving to the MGE Innovation Center (across the street from its current location) in the second half of 2026. The new space will have room for more lab benches and shared equipment—although Martin Eckerly notes that full occupancy is not the goal. “If a company needs to expand quickly, we want to be able to provide for that growth and give the company time to prepare to graduate to its own, independent lab,” she says.
Meanwhile, Forward BIOLABS plans to open a pilot office in Milwaukee at the UW-Milwaukee Innovation Accelerator, where it will share space with BioForward Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub.
“Next to Madison, Milwaukee has the highest density of new technologies and new companies forming in Wisconsin, thanks largely to research originating at Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, and UW-Milwaukee. Our goal is to serve as a connector for young biohealth companies with academic and clinical organizations and other partners in Milwaukee,” Martin Eckerly says.
New grant option
The new Innovation to Commercialization Pipeline (ICP) program is expected to provide grants of $25,000 to $75,000 per startup. The program began in October, with state funds that complement the $49 million in federal money authorized via Wisconsin’s 2024 designation as a Regional Technology Hub.
Led by BioForward Wisconsin and Forward BIOLABS, ICP will help promising young biohealth companies around the state navigate the complex journey from discovery to market. Companies can apply for funding for specific projects they need. Within the next year, 20 or more awards are expected to be distributed.
Lisa Johnson, CEO of BioForward Wisconsin, the nonprofit boosting the state’s biohealth industry, says the grant program is another example of the power of collaboration.
“Wisconsin’s biohealth industry is thriving because of the collaboration and innovation happening across the state,” says Johnson. “Programs like ICP and partners like Forward BIOLABS are vital in helping early-stage companies turn ideas into impact. By supporting entrepreneurs and growing our startup ecosystem, we strengthen Wisconsin’s position as a national leader in biohealth.”
Leveraging AI for health discoveries
One of Forward BIOLABS’ recent success stories is Axio BioPharma, a contract manufacturer for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies ranging from small startups to major pharmaceutical corporations.
“Our goal is to help companies get from concept to clinic, quickly and efficiently,” says CEO and founder Justin Byers.
Byers had worked at well-established biotech firms—including PPD, Illumina, and Aldevron in the Madison area—both on the scientific and commercial sales sides. With a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Illinois State University in Normal, he loved the science—but sales uncovered a new passion. “The closer I got to the customers—and ultimately, the patients—the more joy I found. I got to see the direct impact of the companies’ clinical trials and the diseases they were trying to battle,” he says.
Axio develops and manufactures antibodies and related biological products for drug development. Established in November 2024, the company scored its first client within two weeks of its launch. Now, one year later, Axio has 11 employees and a wide range of clients, and hopes to move into larger quarters by the end of 2025.
The company is about to start raising a large funding round from investors on the West Coast, in Boston, and in the United Kingdom.
Axio’s platform is built around what’s called a federated artificial intelligence (AI) network, which is a system that allows multiple organizations to collaborate and create a powerful, shared AI model without ever having to expose or pool their proprietary data. Each organization uses AI models, behind its own firewall, and contributes only the resulting insights to the shared AI model.
That lays the foundation for a “connected, end-to-end predictive engine that will ultimately be able to forecast key process behaviors before experiments ever start at the bench,” Byers says. “That’s where the real value will come from. When partners can learn through a secure, federated model, the industry gains a level of insight that no single organization could create alone.”
He says the process shakes clients loose from the endless cycle of drug development that often doesn’t have the desired outcome. It is the only system of its type, Byers says.
He says being part of Forward BIOLABS has helped Axio “far exceed our expectations—and it’s because the space, instruments and technology to use them were available.
“Being in a communal space where we can talk and give advice to one another, there are so many lessons learned from each other’s bumps and bruises. This is invaluable,” Byers says.
Early stage: Nelambos
Also among the tenants at Forward BIOLABS is Lalitha Ramamoorthy, a retired microbiology professor at Marian University in Fond du Lac and the founder of Nelambos, which is developing a home test kit for the early detection of urinary tract infections (UTIs). The company draws its mission from Ramamoorthy’s experience of watching her mother’s health deteriorate when a UTI turned into sepsis, a blood infection that took over her body and claimed her life.
“If I could keep five people from having the same end my mother had, it will be worth it,” she says.
Ramamoorthy says her biggest challenge was finding lab space—until she joined Forward BIOLABS. In addition, “founders like me can have casual conversations about grants and funding.”
A promising future
Martin Eckerly is optimistic about the impact that Forward BIOLABS can continue to have in the coming years.
“We have this incredible opportunity to serve these startups in a deeply impactful way. And now, we have the opportunity to serve a wider set of companies through the ICP program with our partner BioForward, to experiment with this model in Milwaukee, and to expand the labs in Madison,” she says.
With a staff of four, including herself, “we work very, very hard. We are firing on all cylinders and we are excited to see the benefits the next year or two will bring,” Martin Eckerly says.
