How RTI's Laboratory Science Capabilities Expand at Alexandria LaunchLabs: An Expert Interview with Samantha Blake

Laboratory science is an essential part of RTI’s commitment to tackling the world’s most critical issues. From testing new drug compounds to studying the toxicity of chemicals found in food and consumer products, RTI’s research chemists focus their efforts on protecting and improving human health. 

Our achievements include developing treatments that have lengthened and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of cancer patients. We are also addressing real-time issues and exploring emerging contaminants of concern, including forever chemicals like PFAS and microplastics that have both been detected in the environment and human organs and tissues.  

With lab science services in high demand, RTI is expanding beyond our 120,000 square feet of state-of-the-art lab space in Research Triangle Park (RTP). We found an ideal partner in Alexandria LaunchLabs, located just around the corner from our headquarters. Since RTP is also home to many leading pharmaceutical companies, we expect to find even more opportunities for collaboration on our shared goal of improving human health.

We sat down with Samantha Blake, a research chemist at RTI, to discuss the launch of RTI’s partnership at Alexandria LaunchLabs and its future potential.

The proximity of our campus to Alexandria allows us to provide access to the entire arsenal of equipment and capabilities on the RTI campus. RTI’s lab science service offerings go beyond access to equipment. We are providing our scientific expertise in areas of experimental design, data analysis, and data interpretations. We believe that our scientific stature and decades of experience distinguish us from the typical service provider where the relationship stops at data delivery; RTI’s efforts extend beyond the data to guidance needed to drive R&D. 

Q: Why are we expanding and how did we choose Alexandria LaunchLabs as the place to expand our lab science services? 

Alexandria Real Estate owns and operates collaborative Megacampus™ ecosystems for life science companies. Their mission is to accelerate innovation that will improve human health. They are achieving this mission by establishing collaborative research clusters across the United States in cities that consistently drive life science innovation, such as RTP, New York City, Boston, Maryland, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego. This ecosystem was one reason that we chose to join the Alexandria LaunchLabs. Our expansion to LaunchLabs provides us direct access to companies nationwide at the forefront of life science innovation and provides another avenue to deploy our scientific expertise.

RTI began as the anchor tenant of RTP; however, we realized that many local companies are unaware of our breakthrough research in their own backyard. Our collaboration with Alexandria will expand our legacy as a leader in RTP and will open the door to greater collaborations, defining a new path to positively impact the lives of people around the globe.

Q. What is the LaunchLabs environment like?

Our partnership with Alexandria also expands our laboratory business model and provides a new approach to initiate and establish commercial partnerships. Alexandria has different levels of tenants. LaunchLabs are mainly smaller startups while their Ascent Labs are larger and more established companies. Both groups of companies routinely seek services from external companies as a part of their R&D process and our goal is to become the trusted partner for many of these services while also providing scientific guidance to companies.

We seek to build that trust by doing science and establishing our presence in the building. We also seek to engage daily with people around the campus and participate in onsite networking events. Recently, Imari Walker-Franklin presented on mass spectrometry applications for scientific research at a lunch and learn. This was the first in a series of lunch- and- learns that RTI plans to host at Alexandria LaunchLabs.

Q: Why do we care about scientific collaboration?

Scientific collaboration is at the heart of RTI and a major contributor to rapid scientific advancements. The greatest advancements are not done alone, and RTI is well positioned to provide the resources and expertise that pharma companies need to push their products over the finish line. The tenants of Alexandria are pushing the boundaries of what is possible for disease treatment. Our presence at Alexandria LabLaunch will create a pipeline for future collaboration and partnerships with companies that will change the future of medicine. We hope for a new approach to positively impact people. 

As a research institute, we routinely collaborate with universities, non-profit organizations, commercial clients, and companies nationwide. The Triangle area is a rich environment for innovation, and RTI has made many valuable research contributions through collaborative efforts; however, the full potential of the expertise has yet to be realized. Expanding to Alexandria allows us to support our local collaborations. The tenants of Alexandria have a wealth of knowledge that we are leveraging to generate novel research ideas and learn new applications for our own internal research. These collaborations will help us achieve our goal to maintain RTP as the hub for scientific breakthroughs, grow our local economy, and continue to grow the RTI research ecosystem. 

Q: What will partnering with us look like? 

Our intent is to not be just a service provider but rather a research collaborator to help guide research and be mutually beneficial. As a result, we have research focused conversations where we provide expertise and guidance beyond just service and data. RTI representatives are working alongside other tenants at LaunchLabs during most business hours and are available for impromptu conversations. Our residence in the LaunchLabs has served two purposes; we are utilizing the lab space for RTI experiments and seeking to build trust among our clients. 

Q: What do we hope for the future of our partnership at Alexandria LaunchLabs?

We see this partnership as the first phase of a much bigger plan to drive innovation in RTP. During this first phase we are focusing on building long-term relationships for scientific collaboration and research advancements. We are in the process of creating tailored analytical service packages and bundled services that are designed for Alexandria tenants based on surveys and daily conversations. This information is driving what specialized equipment will be onsite available to LaunchLabs tenants.

We are also in the process of creating a streamlined onboarding toolkit to drive efficiency in our client engagement model. We currently have a handful of scientists on site daily, but we expect that number to grow as we ramp up research activities. At the same time, we are exploring options to create a conduit for Alexandria tenants to access RTI’s broader research capabilities and technology platforms, which vastly expand the capabilities being offered. We are proud to lead the way in driving public-private sector innovation in RTP.