image: Helix Park
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Texas Medical Center
HOUSTON – (Oct. 22, 2024) – In a bold move to transform patient care, Rice University has launched RBL LLC, a pioneering biotech venture creation studio designed to rapidly build companies based on life-saving medical technologies developed out of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, the university’s biotech innovation accelerator. The Rice Biotech Launch Pad, established last year, will continue to provide RBL with fully developed and de-risked technologies from Rice’s life sciences portfolio, serving as a steady pipeline of innovation for new ventures.
RBL’s mission is to fast-track the journey “from bench to bedside” by leveraging a large portfolio of over 100 patents from Rice faculty, bringing together world-class scientists and engineers with experienced business executives to launch multiple companies in a thriving biotech innovation environment.
Located in Houston’s Texas Medical Center Helix Park, RBL bridges the gap between academic biotech discoveries and the clinical care market. RBL’s location within the TMC provides greater opportunity to collaborate with premier clinical centers, corporate partners and global investors — all within the same complex — to rapidly bring groundbreaking therapies to patients by directly transforming Rice’s most promising life science technology into high impact ventures, company leaders said.
RBL was co-founded by an elite team of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and investors including Paul Wotton, executive director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad; Omid Veiseh, Rice professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad; Jacob Robinson, Rice professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. Rima Chakrabarti, a physician scientist and venture capital investor with KdT Ventures.
“This is a pivotal moment for Houston and beyond,” said Wotton, RBL’s managing partner. “Houston has rapidly emerged as a global life sciences powerhouse, blending cutting-edge research with early clinical applications at Rice and the city’s world-renowned hospital systems. Investors from across the nation are recognizing Houston’s potential, and with RBL, we’re building on that momentum. We’ll not only amplify the work of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad but expand our reach across Texas, creating opportunities for biotech ventures statewide and driving growth for the biotech industry as a whole.”
Rice President Reginald DesRoches highlighted the far-reaching impact of RBL, saying the company opens a “new chapter” in how universities engage with the biotech industry.
“By forging a direct pipeline between our world-class research with clinical and commercial experts, we’re at the forefront of life sciences innovation,” DesRoches said. “RBL will enable us to tackle some of the most pressing health care challenges globally by working with our partners in the Texas Medical Center to make therapeutics more accessible and affordable, while strengthening our leadership in Houston’s dynamic biotech innovation ecosystem.”
William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration, calling the launch of RBL a “critical step forward” for Houston’s life sciences ecosystem.
“Leveraging Rice University’s Biotech Launch Pad breakthroughs and pairing it with the world-class translational infrastructure of TMC Helix Park well positions RBL to drive unprecedented advances in patient care,” McKeon said. “This partnership between academia, industry and health care is exactly what’s needed to transform medical discoveries into real-world solutions that improve lives globally.”
The creation of RBL from Rice was spearheaded by Paul Cherukuri, Rice’s chief innovation officer, and Veiseh, who recognized the need for launching a commercial entity to create multiple startup companies faster from newly developed biotechnology.
“RBL is a game-changer for Rice, Houston and the global biotech community,” Cherukuri said. “This venture not only accelerates the commercialization of our innovations but also sets a blueprint for other universities looking to maximize the real-world impact of their discoveries. By combining scientific expertise with entrepreneurial support from Day Zero together with strategic clinical partnerships in the TMC, we’re creating a model for driving large-scale biotech innovation that universities everywhere should aspire to replicate.”
“RBL provides a powerful platform to translate high-impact scientific discoveries into therapies that will dramatically improve patient outcomes,” Veiseh said. “Our goal is to rapidly bring Rice’s pioneering research into the clinic, delivering life-saving solutions to patients around the world.”
The formation of RBL LLC was guided by Hogan Lovells US LLP with Houston partner Barry Burgdorf, representing Rice, playing a key role in its design and rollout, while Goodwin Procter LLP, representing RBL, ensured the transition from concept to execution.
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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
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About RBL LLC:
RBL LLC is a pioneering biotech venture creation studio based in Houston that is dedicated to accelerating the development of breakthrough medical technologies and therapies through company formation. RBL provides entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators with the infrastructure, financial support and strategic guidance as well as access to laboratory space and shared resources in the Texas Medical Center Helix Park. For more information, please visit https://www.rbl-llc.com/.
About Rice:
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.