Chan Zuckerberg life sciences hub to open in Fulton Market

The biohub research venture of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife Dr. Priscilla Chan is setting up in Chicago’s Fulton Market, its first location outside of its original center in San Francisco.

The operation will unite researchers in academia to study inflammation in human tissue and its role in diseases. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will work with scientists from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Called CZ Biohub Chicago, the venture has leased nearly 26,000 square feet at 1375 W. Fulton St., part of a two-building research hub developer Trammell Crow has established. It is expected to occupy the space this spring.

The longterm lease brings the 300,000-square-foot Fulton building to about 85% occupancy, said Dan Lyne, executive vice president of real estate firm CBRE, who was a broker in the transaction.

The deal further certifies the Fulton Market office and residential district as a draw for tech-centered operations, ranging from new ventures to units of established companies such as tractor maker Deere. Since Google opened in the area in 2015, Fulton Market has become one of the busiest downtown development areas in the country.

CZ Biohub said it will convene researchers to solve medical challenges on a 10- to 15-year time frame. The president of the Chicago operation is Shana Kelley, professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering at Northwestern.

In a statement from the Zuckerberg initiative, Chan outlined the goals in Chicago. “This institute will embark on science to embed miniaturized sensors into tissues that will allow us to understand how healthy and diseased tissues function in unprecedented detail. This might feel like science fiction today, but we think it’s realistic to achieve huge progress in the next 10 years,” she said.

“I look forward to the advances in science and technology that this new Biohub will spur in studying how tissues function to understand what goes wrong in disease and how to fix it.”

The venture has $25 million in capital funds from the state, authorized by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The governor, a major investor in tech companies before he was elected, issued a statement welcoming the news of the Chicago site.

“Biomedical research will be taken to a new level at this facility with the help of the brightest minds from local universities, and I look forward to seeing their new discoveries help people around the world,” Pritzker said.

Pete Farley, a spokesman for the initiative, said around 30 to 50 people are expected to work at the Chicago site. He declined to say how many more centers it plans to build, but estimated several more in a few years.

The San Francisco hub opened in 2016 and has been involved in mapping cells of humans and other species.

Aside from the building on Fulton, what Trammell Crow calls its Fulton Labs Campus also includes a 425,000-square-foot building at 400 N. Aberdeen St. that opened last year. Tenants on the campus include Celadyne Technologies, Portal Innovations and Vanqua Bio.

“Our goal when we first sought to build Fulton Labs was to create a state-of-the-art environment for the incredible talent Chicago has always produced to be able to bring their ideas and patient-saving products to life here at home,” said John Carlson, principal at Trammell Crow’s Midwest office. “We are energized by the progress our city has made as a leading life science cluster and we are looking forward to delivering more world-class facilities to support the continued growth.” 

The company is building life sciences labs in Hyde Park near the U of C and in Evanston near Northwestern. Both are designed for startups that faculty and researchers at those schools may be launching.