May 25, 2026
The practical questions to ask before you rent a biotech lab – so you can protect your runway, start experiments faster and stay flexible as your company grows.
For many young biotechs, securing independent lab space feels like a major step forward. It is also one of the first decisions that can quietly shape almost everything that follows – your burn, your speed to first data, your team’s focus and your ability to grow without disruption.
That is why lab space should never be treated like a standard real estate decision.
Early-stage teams often compare options based on rent, square meters and the visible quality of the space. Those things matter. But they are rarely what causes problems later. More often, the real issues show up three to six months after signing: hidden operating costs, missing infrastructure, compliance friction, avoidable upfront invetments and a setup that no longer fits once the company evolves.
A good lab should do more than house your experiments. It should help you start quickly, stay flexible and make progress without creating unnecessary operational burden for your founding team.
Below is a practical guide for evaluating biotech lab space before you sign.
The quoted rent is only the starting point.
What matters is your fully loaded monthly cost: utilities, waste disposal, maintenance, equipment access, cold storage, cleaning, service charges and the operational overhead around the lab itself. If some of those costs are variable or usage-based, your actual burn may look very different from the number you modeled at the start.
That matters for one simple reason: cost uncertainty creates runway risk.
For early stage biotech companies, the question is rarely just whether the lab looks affordable today. It is whether the cost structure will still feel manageable once you add activity, people and complexity. A lab that appears efficient at the start can become much less attractive if your monthly cost base becomes harder to predict as the company grows.
A useful question to ask during any viewing is not just, “Can we afford this now?” It is, “What happens to our cost if we double activity, add team members or increase throughput?”
which allowed us to start manufacturing and continue growing seamlessly. The campus made it possible to have both custom-built space and immediate access to ready-to-use labs, ensuring smooth expansion.
Simon Ittig, CEO, T3 Pharma, Main Campus resident
Many founders underestimate how much cash gets tied up before the first meaningful experiment even begins.
A lab may look ready. But what still needs to be bought, installed, validated or adapted before it becomes usable for your specific workflows? Will you need to invest in equipment, IT, safety systems, storage, gas supply or specialist fit-out? Are you taking on upfront invetments that could otherwise stay available for science, hiring or business development?
In many first-lab situations, rent is not the biggest cost. The real cost comes from the hidden investment needed to make the lab operational.
This is especially relevant for spin-offs leaving an academic environment. Universities absorb a surprising amount of infrastructure and operational cost in the background. Once you move into your own space, those responsibilities often move with you.
The more you can delay or reduce non-essential setup investment in the early stage, the more room you preserve for scientific progress.
“The Main Campus gives us the opportunity to access a fully equipped molecular and cellular biology lab without the need to make major investments in instrumentation.”
Covadonga Paneda, COO, Altamira Therapeutics, Main Campus resident
Speed to science matters more than many teams expect.
Founders often hear phrases like “move-in ready” or “fully equipped” and assume that means they can start work almost immediately. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes it is not.
What matters is the real timeline until your first experiment and data. That depends on whether the infrastructure you need is already in place, whether equipment still needs to be installed or qualified and whether the space is operational for your workflows rather than just broadly usable.
A delay of a few weeks may not sound dramatic. But for a startup working toward a technical milestone, investor update or grant deliverable, those weeks can matter.
The right benchmark is not whether the lab looks good on day one. It is whether it helps your team make scientific progress quickly.
For a small company like ours, this is a big advantage. We were able to start working right away.
Damien Evéquoz, Co-founder & Scientist, Alpha Anomeric, Main Campus alumni
Biotech companies rarely stay static for long.
You may need to add people faster than expected. You may need more bench space, tighter access control, different workflows or greater separation between functions. Or the opposite may happen: fundraising takes longer, timelines shift or the science changes direction and you need to preserve flexibility.
That is why lease structure matters almost as much as lab quality.
Before signing, ask how long you are committed for, what the exit terms are, whether the lease starts before you can fully operate and what options exist if your needs change. A space that looks attractive can become a burden if the contract was designed for mature companies with stable headcount and longer planning cycles.
The same applies to growth. If your team expands, can you add capacity without relocating immediately? Can you move from a lighter, shared setup into a more private environment without losing momentum?
For early-stage biotech, flexibility is part of risk management.
Need help chosing a lab space that won’t limit you later? Talk to our expert.
In an academic setting, many services are almost invisible. Deliveries arrive. Waste gets handled. Equipment gets serviced. Shared infrastructure functions in the background.
Founders often only feel the weight of that support once it disappears.
So, before you sign, ask: who receives deliveries, manages hazardous waste, coordinates maintenance, handles shared equipment logistics and fixes operational issues when something goes wrong? Who is responsible for the day-to-day infrastructure around the science?
This matters because operational burden has a real cost. Every hour your founders or scientific team spend troubleshooting facilities, coordinating vendors or managing routine logistics is time not spent advancing the program.
The best first lab is not always the one with the most space. Often, it is the one that removes the most friction.
Setting up our research operations in the shared lab was crucial because we could start working on advancing science right away, producing more data, and expanding our technology platform. We didn’t have to spend time or money on establishing our own lab infrastructure.
Friedrich Metzger, Ex-CEO, Versameb, Main Campus alumni
In biotech, “Can we lease this?” is only half the question.
The other half is: “Can we legally, safely and appropriately do our work here when we need to?”
That means understanding, at a high level, what applies to your activities from day one. Depending on your work, that may include biosafety classification, organism-related requirements, chemical handling, internal safety responsibilities and activity-specific approvals. It also means being clear on who is responsible for what so there are no surprises once the lease is signed.
Compliance delays are frustrating because they rarely arrive all at once. More often, they appear as small uncertainties, missing steps or assumptions that no one tested early enough.
At the same time, teams should think carefully about confidentiality, access control and digital infrastructure. In a shared environment, how is sensitive work protected from unintended visibility? Who can access which spaces? And does the data environment support the way your company needs to manage scientific and operational information securely?
For founders, the practical question is simple: do we understand the path from signing the lease to running compliant experiments in a setup that protects our work?
Need to check whether a lab space fits your compliance, confidentiality and infrastructure needs? Talk to our expert.
Starting research operations in Europe was an easy decision as the fully equipped lab infrastructure in the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area allowed us to do so very leanly at the beginning. And it provided us with a head start so we could focus entirely on the science from day one.
Kathleen McCarthy, CSO, Skyhawk Therapeutics, Main Campus alumni
A lab is not just a technical environment. It is part of your company-building infrastructure.
That includes the practical side of how your team operates day to day. Can people work productively when they are not at the bench? Are there suitable spaces for meetings, planning, investors and collaboration? Does the setup support both science and the business activity around it?
Location also matters more than many founders expect. In biotech, the right location can improve access to talent, CROs, collaborators, investors and ecosystem credibility. It can make hiring easier, meetings simpler, and partnerships more natural.
So, the question is not just whether the lab works technically. It is whether the broader environment helps your company move faster.
We are bridging the gap between the state of the art and the impossible. The community and environment at Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area helps us to reach our goals.
Prof. Dr. Philippe Cattin University of Basel Department of Biomedical Engineering, Main Campus resident
Founders who get help with making their first lab decision will ask a different set of questions from others.
They ask how quickly the team can begin generating data. They ask what costs stay predictable and which ones can quietly escalate. They ask who carries the operational burden. They ask whether the space will still work if the company is twice the size, running a different workflow or protecting more sensitive science.
In other words, they treat lab space as a strategic decision, not a procurement exercise.
The Main Campus has a whole mixture of organizations working in biomedicine and biotech. Just walking around brings formal introductions and informal exchanges. To be in such a rich and diverse area, right within the same facility, is priceless. This campus is a mini ecosystem.
Stephen Wilson, CEO of Botnar Institute of Immune Engeneering & Main Campus resident
For biotech teams evaluating options in the Basel Area, the most useful lab setup is often the one that reduces friction at the beginning without limiting what comes next.
That is where the lab spaces at Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area’s Main Campus are designed to help.
For very early-stage companies, shared lab space offers a way to start lean, access wet lab infrastructure, and avoid major upfront investment in core instrumentation and setup. For teams that need more control, dedicated workflows or room to expand, private labs offer a path to greater independence while staying in the same life sciences environment.
That growth path matters. The right setup is not just about where you start. It is about whether you can adapt without losing time, focus or momentum.
For teams operating in Switzerland, Main Campus also brings valuable local context. While each company remains responsible for its own activity-specific approvals and internal compliance obligations, working in a life sciences-focused environment can make it easier to navigate the practical realities of operating in Switzerland and the Basel Area with greater clarity from the start.
That is what futureproof spaces look like in practice: a setup that helps you move faster now without creating avoidable barriers later.
Bring this checklist with you whenever you assess a lab:
If you cannot answer those questions clearly, you probably do not yet know whether the space fits your company.
Look beyond rent and square meters. Focus on setup speed, total operating cost, required upfront investment, compliance readiness, operational support, flexibility, confidentiality and whether the space fits how your team actually works.
Shared lab space can be an excellent option for early-stage biotech teams that want to move fast and keep upfront investment low. What matters most is whether the setup supports both current workflows and future growth. In the right setting, companies can scale into later stages without having to move.
A private lab usually makes more sense once your company needs more control, dedicated workflows, customized infrastructure, tighter access management or room to scale.
Typical hidden costs include utilities, waste disposal, maintenance, equipment access, cold storage, cleaning, IT, safety requirements, installation and validation, plus the internal time your team spends running the lab. Another risk is choosing a space that no longer fits as the company grows, for example because it lacks a cargo lift, the right biosafety equipment or room to expand. That can lead to extra expense, delays and even the need to relocate both lab and team.
Location affects access to talent, collaborators, investors, CROs and ecosystem visibility. In biotech, the right location can support both scientific progress and business growth. This is why many teams choose to build in Europe’s life sciences supercluster Basel.
It usually makes sense when the company starts to outgrow the academic environment. Early access to university labs and infrastructure can be valuable, but over time many teams need more independence, more flexibility and a clearer path to growth. The goal is not to leave shared infrastructure behind. It is to move into a biotech environment where shared labs still work, but growth is no longer constrained by the academic setting. Being part of a diverse innovation community can also open up new connections, business perspectives and practical support that help spin-offs grow beyond the research stage.
That depends on the company’s stage and lab requirements. In general, shared lab space offers a lower-cost entry point with less upfront investment, growth-stage space requires a broader operating budget, and dedicated labs come with the highest setup and running costs. The most important thing is to budget for the full operating model, including infrastructure, equipment access, compliance and services, not just rent. Lower-cost offers may include fewer services, less shared equipment or more limited infrastructure. That is why it is important to look beyond base rent and compare the full operating model, including equipment access, technical services, compliance support and the ability to grow without disruption.
Explore the shared and private lab options at Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area Main Campus, and let our team help you find the setup that fits your science, timeline and growth plans.
Discover where startups, life science industry giants, research groups and everything in between come together to push the boundaries of the life sciences.
In this interview with Dr. Simon Ittig, CEO of T3 Pharma, we explore how they moved from academia to entrepreneurship, scaled within Basel’s vibrant biotech hub, and became part of Boehringer Ingelheim’s CHF 450 million acquisition, all while shaping the next generation of cancer care.
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