Past EventMeet NMBio’s Board of Directors and Tour UNM’s new Lobo Rainforest Building

Here is your chance to meet, mix and mingle with NMBio’s distinguished board members and its expanding network of bioscience entrepreneurs. Celebrate the opening of the ecosystem headquarters for downtown Albuquerque’s innovation district with a tour of the Lobo Rainforest Building. Refreshments will be provided.

Leading the tour will be Lisa Kuuttila, CEO and Chief Economic Development Officer for UNM’s Science and Technology Corp. (UNM’s tech transfer office). Lisa, who also happens to be Chair of NMBio, will provide a brief overview of STC-UNM’s mission and the role the building and its entrepreneurial tenants and students will play in nurturing budding ideas into flourishing and sustainable enterprises.

The six-story, 160,000-square-foot facility will soon be home to 300-plus Innovation Academy students (floors 2-6) working with businesspeople, scientists and professionals from the state’s research universities and labs to build startups and take new technologies to market. The $35 million public-private project represents the heart and soul of Innovate ABQ, and the joint efforts of UNM, the city, the county and private developers to build an Innovation Corridor that will spur economic growth.

STC-UNM, the Innovation Academy and STC’s incubator, the Cecchi VenturesLab will be located on the first floor. The Air Force Research Lab will have a designated technology transfer office on the ground floor to take advantage of research collaborations and start-up company formations.The ground floor also features large and small conference rooms, huddle spaces, collaboration space, a student fabrication lab, a café, fitness and bike storage rooms. The Nusenda Credit Union will also have an office.

“The building’s space is designed to increase collaborations for university inventors and entrepreneurs from around the state, with an emphasis on UNM student inventors and entrepreneurs,” said Lisa. “Students will have more opportunities to collaborate with other inventors, entrepreneurs and investors to commercialize their technologies and creative ideas.”