A new life science incubator space has opened in New Haven, part of a growing web of infrastructure to support the city’s budding life sciences industry.

The New Haven Innovation Lab opened its doors at 290 Congress Ave. this week, across the street from Yale New Haven Hospital.

The 7,630-square-foot facility will offer  a mix of private and shared wet labs aimed at scientists and entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of drug discovery and growth. 

The facility was inspired by New Haven’s dire lack of commercial-grade lab space and other infrastructure to support more bioscience companies that have historically spun out of Yale University or Yale New Haven Hospital, but relocated to Boston or New York City to gain access to physical space as they grow. The same trends have led several developers to plan hundreds of thousands of square feet of new construction and conversions in the city.

“This additional direction for the John B. Pierce Laboratory blends nicely with the longstanding commitment to design, develop and implement new technologies and innovations for the betterment of mankind,” John B. Pierce Laboratory Director John Geibel said in a statement in June when the project was announced. “We are very excited to create a novel space that can support startup companies that arise from the Yale University School of Medicine community along with other startups looking to create a footprint in New Haven and Connecticut.” 

The Pierce Laboratory is a nonprofit research center affiliated with Yale, and the creator of the Innovation Lab in partnership with BioCT, which earlier developed a wet lab incubator in Groton. Innovation Lab tenants will also have access to Pierce scientists to help them develop their ideas.

“With hundreds of jobs added in the past few years, bioscience/biotech companies like Alexion and Arvinas are demonstrating the economic impact of Yale’s growing research innovation pipeline,” New Haven Innovation Collaborative Executive Director Michael Harris said in a June statement. “CTNext’s support for this new lab incubator creates a local first step for their next generation of companies. In addition, a talent partnership with Southern Connecticut State University’s BioPath program will help them connect with a locally based workforce and provide pathways for more New Haven residents to access these bioscience jobs.”