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Last year, a small team of scientists in Indianapolis discovered a method for the early detection of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers precisely because it’s so hard to catch in time.
Despite what you might assume, these scientists weren’t working out of a gleaming coastal research campus or a well-capitalized Silicon Valley lab. They were members of a startup called Amplified Sciences, operating out of an accelerator in Indiana, surviving on non-dilutive federal funding while racing to close the gap between a promising discovery and a product that could reach patients.
This discovery wasn’t a miracle. It was the result of an entire bioscience ecosystem strategically built here in central Indiana.
Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Todd Young held a field hearing in Indiana on how small businesses power innovation in America’s biotechnology sector. I had the privilege of testifying, representing Indiana University and the IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, or IU LAB. My testimony focused on one central argument: If you want to understand where America’s biotech future is being built, stop looking east and west. Look at what’s happening right now in central Indiana.
IU LAB is not just an accelerator or a university program. It is one part of a connective tissue of an emerging national model, one that proves biotech dominance doesn’t have to live on the coasts. And IU LAB’s strength is inseparable from the ecosystem surrounding it. Our permanent home in 16 Tech Innovation District places us in direct proximity to Indiana University Health, one of the nation’s leading academic health systems; the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, which drives translational research across the state; the CEOs of Indiana Corporate Partnership and the leadership of Biocrossroads; and the Regenstreif Institute, a global leader in health data science and informatics. These aren’t neighbors by coincidence. They are deliberate partners in a shared mission.
In just our first year, IU LAB secured a $40 million partnership with Lilly, the single largest industry-sponsored research agreement in IU’s history, focused on clinical trial access and innovation, Alzheimer’s research and building the next generation of bioscience talent. We signed a landmark collaboration with Cook Medical that has already yielded a designation as one of the first Interventional MRI Centers of Excellence, recognizing our advanced clinical expertise in MRI-guided research and care. And through our partnership with IU Health, we launched accelerator programs now supporting up to 40 startups per year.
Those startups arrive through world-class programming. Powered by Gener8tor’s gBETA program, our pre-accelerator runs intensive seven-week cohorts for early-stage companies. The LifeTech Accelerator, powered by Plug and Play and Biocrossroads, supports more than 30 companies annually, connecting them to one of the deepest corporate networks in the world. Together, these programs are recruiting companies from across the country to plant roots in Indianapolis.
The companies coming through aren’t theoretical. OsseoLabs is using AI and 3D printing to transform orthopedic surgery. Qwyn AI is applying agentic AI to pharmaceutical manufacturing. Amplified Sciences earned regulatory approvals, secured a university license and raised a funding round.
This past fall, IU LAB awarded eight competitive research grants to interdisciplinary research teams aligned with America’s strategic biotech priorities: AI-driven disease modeling, agricultural resilience, sustainable biomanufacturing, and accelerated healing technologies. This is an ecosystem competing for the future.
America is in a race. Our competitors have named biotechnology a pillar of national power and are funding it accordingly. The answer isn’t just more investment in the same places. It’s backing ecosystems like the one we’re building in central Indiana, where IU LAB, IU Health, IBRI, CICP, Regenstreif, 16 Tech and world-class accelerator partners are already pulling in the same direction.
The future of American biotech dominance is being built in Indianapolis. And thanks to Young’s leadership, Washington and the world are taking notice.•
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Rosenberg is the inaugural president and CEO of the Indiana University Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, called IU LAB. He previously served as Indiana’s commerce secretary.
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