Episode 127: How to Build a Biotech Community Beyond the East and West Coasts

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Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Welcome back to Bio from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the executive in residence at Tulane School of Medicine. And today's guest is Dr. Kristen Godale. She is the founding executive director of LifeSci KY, a nonprofit lab coworking space that offers shared instrumentation, operational support services, and a collaborative community. Welcome to the show.

Happy to be here.

Well, great. And I don't know if you know this, I mean, we have connections to Kentucky on this podcast.

Connections. Ooh.

So our original founder of The podcast, James, is from Kentucky, has family there, and my family's from Kentucky as well, from the Paducah area.

Love to hear it. You know, I'm not originally from Kentucky. I'm from Northeastern Ohio. So I actually moved down here around 2016 for my PhD in neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati. So I'm also a transplant. So I love Kentucky though.

Well, let's dive into it. So set the stage for us. Can you tell us about your path besides starting in Ohio into the life sciences and what led you Elaine, it's been a journey.

You know, you start off in academia. I have my bachelor's in a small liberal arts university called Baldwin-Wallace University, and I did neuroscience bio there. And, you know, I got really great training. I moved down here to University of Cincinnati. I originally wanted to become a professor, actually, as we always do. And halfway through my PhD, you know, you start to have the job conversation.

Oh yeah.

And that's a whole separate thing. So I started to look at alternative careers. So I was a writer for a nonprofit. I did some science policy with the Society for Neuroscience, and then I did some consulting roles here and there. That led me to venture capital where I worked at a local VC firm right after my PhD. And it was such a privilege to do so. As I like to say, yeah, I went through an evolution.

Yeah.

And coming right out of academia and seeing all the cool stuff that's in venture pipeline, you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is sci-fi. I cannot believe all this cool stuff is going on at the same time. After that, I started to learn more about fundraising and venture capital and all that. But concurrently, in Kentucky, right across the river, this project that I now run, was beginning to blossom. It was formerly called Covington Life Sciences Partners. And what it was in 2022 was a lot of big leaders in the REACH. Now, I like to call them the Northern Kentucky Avengers, to be quite honest with you. Yeah, love it. I know, but they were going around and working with our General Assembly in Kentucky and then the governor's office to say, hey, we need more infrastructure here because, you know, in Greater Cincinnati, that includes Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. There's really nowhere to put things. And we have right now is always affiliated with academia or we have spaces, but they're not wet lab. You know, there's no fume hoods or BSCs or anything. So if you're in biotech or you want to go into the field of life sciences as an entrepreneur, there's nowhere. And to build a lab, it's millions and millions of dollars.

Oh yeah.

To buy instruments, it's millions and millions of dollars. So it just makes it non-feasible. And then folks go to other locations. So that's how it all started. So when I was still in venture, I was watching this happening. I was like, huh, that's really cool. And that's gonna be really impactful for the region. So in 2024, they were looking for an executive director.

Yep.

And I popped out my comfy job and took the leap of entrepreneurism and decided to just grab on. We decided to just build the organization stealth. Yeah. For a little bit. That included really doing a lot of diligence with what they do in other states, talking to other operators around the country with how they run their incubators, and also talking to entrepreneurs with what do you wanna see in the space so it's most useful to you?

Yeah.

After that, we rebranded to LifeSci KY in February 2025 because we saw there was a need in the state for someone to do this, and frankly, no one was doing it. So I was trained to identify market gaps and that was one of 'em. So we decided to just grab it and claim it as what we're doing here in Kentucky. So it's been an excellent journey. I never, ever, ever would've thought I'd be doing something like this, but I like to tell folks that I mentor to just be open to trying new things. And yeah, if you're feeling uncomfortable, that's a good thing because that means you're gonna be challenged and Yeah. You're gonna have the opportunity to build something sweet.

Yeah. I've seen a lot of states, particularly I'm gonna call Midwest, Gulf, South region, try to do incubators or accelerators, and they, some are successful and some are successful for a while and then they kind of falter. Where do you think the biggest challenge comes starting or really maintaining an incubator accelerator-type program within a state?

So I like to say there are 3 pillars of making something successful, and that's government, that's industry, and that's academia. And I always think the government part is the hardest part to get buy-in from. So we were privileged in Kentucky that both our General Assembly and our governor saw the need and potential That could have impact in our state. With industry, we do have a lot of work to do here in Kentucky to get something like an Eli Lilly, honestly. And then with academia, we have plenty of that throughout the state, especially with our research expenditures that come through University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.

Yeah.

So that's kind of the hard part. So if you're starting off kind of in the middle of the state, you don't really have tools or access to folks, you know, it's challenging.

Yeah.

And I think the other important part is to realize where you are. You know, a lot of folks, they like to go around and say, we're gonna be the next Boston, we're gonna be the next San Francisco. And those things are so unique because it's composition of the people there, the IP there, the venture capital there. And it's not something that can be easily replicated.

Yeah.

So instead of setting your sights on, I wanna be the next Boston, Let that go. And you have to inventory where you're at as a state and imagine what's possible in the next like 3 to 5 years instead of saying, I'm going to be this thing. You're probably not. Don't set yourself up for failure there.

Yeah. And why try? I mean, you have to really emphasize what's unique about your state and your community. And if you try to pigeonhole yourself into Copley Square, I mean, it's just, They're unique for their reason too. And so what do you think then is unique about where you guys are?

I think the biggest advantage we have is we're centrally located in the United States, and it's not too deep south, you know, it's right there. And we have a fantastic logistics hub here with DHL and Amazon in Louisville. They have UPS Healthcare. And it's just a fantastic setup. But you need to realize that even though it's not just life sciences, you're using the tools that the state already has and building on top of it. So that's what I see we're doing in Kentucky. You're not starting from ground one. You're trying to design something that's built on top of already existing industries.

I think it's such a big piece of it. I mean, something that I hear a lot within our region of the Gulf South, or even where I'm from in Oklahoma, is that it's inexpensive. And that's obviously very true. I mean, it's very cheap to live here, and our square foot, dollar per square foot goes a lot farther here, as I'm sure it does in Kentucky. But there has to be more than that. And I like the building upon the uniqueness. Something that I saw that Oklahoma did was really, hey, we're oil and gas, we know we are, and how do we build upon that infrastructure or find ways to make connections between biotech and oil and gas. And there are, I mean, they both use imaging. There's all kinds of different ways that those can interconnect, and we've seen successes come from that. But you really have to build on what's unique within your state, and that can be challenging if you don't do what I think you described in your first answer, which was talking to your customers. And it seems like you guys did a lot of that.

We did. We did. And it's, it's so important to do that because otherwise you don't know where you're starting off on. I always like, whatever I do, I like to understand the perception that people have on us. And in Kentucky, that's sometimes a really hard pill to swallow because we're not really known for doing innovation, even though we do outwardly. People don't have that. But if you understand how people view you, then you can better strategize and build.

That's such a hard part of it. I mean, I've even, I've at some points in my startup career have taken off where I live off the website and my business cards. Although at the moment I say, I start talking, that y'all comes out and they know I'm not from Boston. But it really is challenging. We've often thought, should we have an office In Copley Square, should we have an office in San Francisco just to be seen as? I don't know what the word I'm looking for here. As one of their own, that we're not too different. But I fight against that idea that innovation can't happen outside of those hubs, and that in fact, that there's a lot of uncovered stones and gems here that people haven't had a chance to look at, unlike somewhere like Boston, where. There's such capacity around technology that had— you've probably seen everything at that point.

Definitely. And you kind of hit on something that sparked this comment right now. I think you also need to be proud of where you are.

Yeah.

One thing with Life's IQY, with— you're probably familiar with where we are, but we are at like the top of Kentucky. Yeah. And it's a weird spot to be because, you know, we're attached to the greater Cincinnati region.

Right.

So up here across the river, sometimes they're like, ah, you're Kentucky. But as you go downward in Kentucky, you know, really past Lexington, which is the center part, they think of us like, hey, you're Cincinnati. Right. So, right. So one thing we like to do at LifeSci KY is begin to own the Kentucky identity. Yeah.

Sure.

You know, we're proud that we're located in Kentucky. We do have a unique geographical footprint where we have access to this wonderful metro market, but end of the day, we're in Kentucky.

Yeah.

And as you kind of hook up to that type of messaging, then it's easier to get buy-in. And that's what we want because we do care about Kentucky. We want everyone to succeed because if you don't connect everything in your state, then, you know, you really have an impossible task of making a hub because, you know, let's be real, Northern Kentucky is not Boston and where you are, that's not Boston. We don't have the density. And it's a people density issue there. You need to add as many people as possible to whatever you're building in order to be successful.

Yeah, I think, and that's what I think that New Orleans does very well, is that we lean into who we are and our culture. And I mean, heck, bio from the bayou, you know, and we just, it is what it is, right? In thinking about what does that look like in practice? Like what are the most valuable connection points that you've seen across that ecosystem that you guys have?

I would say when I partner with LifeSci KY, you know, I look for people actually outside of our state, outside of our ecosystem, because if we would've done this, like if things were good, like we're having successes here, then LifeSci KY wouldn't exist. We wouldn't be here doing the work we're doing. So we're moving towards a phase, I believe, in the Commonwealth of Kentucky where we're not afraid to ask for help.

Mm-hmm.

One example is Thermo Fisher Scientific. They have biotech hubs around the nation, and we put a lot of energy into partnering with Thermo Fisher Scientific to add on to our incubator. And we successfully did that, which benefits all of our clients, led to sponsorship, and that's never been done in Kentucky before.

Yeah.

So we love that and we're proud of it. So another thing we did was partner with Project MedTech. Project MedTech is a national and international consulting firm that helps early-stage entrepreneurs get to where they need to be. What they do with our clients is provide early-stage operational assessments of their technology, something they'd never get anywhere else. And we're really proud of that because it actually helps them start in the incubator with data. You know, I'm a scientist, I love data, and I love when people tell me where you are as a company instead of saying, oh, well, you're early, or, oh, you know, you have potential. That means nothing to an early-stage founder.

Yeah.

So we're actually helping them assess where they are and how an external figure really sees them. So that's another valuable thing that we've brought to the state in addition to all these different companies as well. So we're really excited about that. And we've also done a few other things even with our lab. We brought Elemental Machines, which is an IoT critical systems platform that monitors all of our cold storage and incubators on site. That's already done in other states.

Yeah.

But we really were intentional with realizing we don't have this here.

Right.

So we have to go out and bring these folks here. And that's what I, I love to do. And not a lot of people think about that because they're like, well, I could just build it here.

Right.

And I don't think that's possible, 'cause we need to go out and ask for help. But then that leads to, I need to self-reflect and say, I don't know how to do everything. And that's a really uncomfortable realization for some people.

It's hard because I think, especially in the EcDev, you tend to think of selling the story and being the cheerleader. And with that comes a little bit of that feeling like you constantly can only talk about the good things and not necessarily the gaps that you may have or some of the challenges you may have. And so, that can be really hard when you're constantly on stage trying to sell that, hey, nope, nope, nope. If we want this to be sustainable, we have to do more and be reflective of what we need. What are some other pieces that you see are necessary for sustainability? Because I've seen a lot of programs start but fail. Where do you think the biggest help or benefit or challenge comes in when it comes to sustaining a model like this?

I think it's access to people. So one other thing I like to do is try to find other partners outside of Kentucky that can help people, help my founders get seen. I like to be involved with the Chicago Bio Consortium because they have these like BioCentury conferences every year. And let's be real, these folks that go to these conferences, they don't want to come to Kentucky right now. They don't. We cannot get them here.

Yeah.

So we need to partner with another state, another region that will accept our clientele and gladly welcome them to that conference and city or whatever. But that's a hard thing to accept because a lot of people in economic development want to bring them here, but they won't. We don't have the tourism. We don't have the hotels. We don't have the stadiums to have a high-value conference like that. And the sooner you realize that, then you can partner with folks and still get your founders seen. Yeah. Because it's all about raising money, but you have to have access to the right investors, the right pharma companies, the right people.

Yeah.

So collaboration and people.

Yeah. That acknowledgement of just like, hey, the, there's no direct flights where I'm at. And it takes, it can take, you know, a couple of hop, skips, and jumps to get to where you are. So let's find the places where people are willing to go. that are close by. Chicago's great. I really miss when they did BIO International. So right now they've just been doing it in Boston and San Diego and back and forth. I saw them add back in Philly, which is good, but I remember when it was in Chicago and that's such a great place to bring people to something other than one of the major coastal hubs. And—

Yeah.

There's great biotech and science going on in Chicago and great sort of infrastructure there as well. Like you said, BioCentury, they put on an amazing Events there. So yeah, I really like that tie-in.

The Chicagoland biotech scene is great. They have fantastic people there. You know, I love connecting and working with those folks and they're always really welcoming and, you know, they want to help you too, cuz they know the resources and connections they provide.

100%. Actually, my company I'm currently with, Cadenza Bio, came out of a Chicago accelerator that I was working for, Smart Health Catalyzer. The technology, the technology came out of Illinois. We got funding from Illinois Ventures. I mean, and here I am in Oklahoma and Louisiana and was able to take advantage of all of that. And now connecting, you know, the funding opportunities here in New Orleans through some of the resources we have here. So finding all of those, I guess the spoke hub kind of model and finding ways that you can connect can really pull together. So I probably easier in some ways.

I got connected to the Chicago ecosystem through Smart Health Catalyzer.

Oh, amazing.

It's so crazy.

That's awesome.

But, you know, little things like that, it just proves they're so welcoming and wanna give you resources because, but again, that, that type of conversation, you know, it makes you reflect what I don't have. Yeah. And it's uncomfortable. But once you have that conversation, you know what pieces you need. And that's the first start into having those serious conversations around your state.

Yeah.

Whether it's a lawmaker, a university partner, an industry partner, whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah. These people want the same thing as you. You need to explain it to them.

Yeah.

And make sure that, not even in the education way, just make sure they know what you need.

Yeah.

Because they will be supportive, but you need buy-in from them.

100%. Oh, that's great. Well, and it's like how we started getting kind of loosey-goosey with what we consider to be the Gulf South region, because I mean, how we got connected, Kentucky, was coming to Bio on the Bayou, our conference we put together. We do have the advantage in Louisiana of having New Orleans. People want to come to New Orleans to visit, so why not make it easier? One, it's a great city to visit, but if we can pull together all of the universities in the region, we can make it worth their time when they come here. They're not just hitting one university or one company, they're hitting all of us. There's a power in that.

Definitely, 100% agree.

Well, if there's any type of ed dev or state or even founders and entrepreneurs in the Midwest that are wanting to find ways to build a community, what are some non-negotiables that you would tell them that they, if they're gonna do this, if they're gonna try to make their version of LifeSci KY, what would you tell them?

I would say that the community message, it's a nice place to live, nice people. That's not enough.

Yeah.

Because we've, we do that a lot in the Mid-South.

We do.

We're like, oh, we're so nice here. Well, they're really nice in California and Massachusetts. They're equally as nice. Things are cheap here comparatively, right? That's nice.

That's nice.

But entrepreneurs want to win. They want to make money. They want to find capital. They want to have customers.

Yeah.

And you need to be able to communicate to them, you can win here. So what we like to do is we bank on a capital efficiency message. We are very cheap because we studied the market and what we offer is appropriate for folks coming to life cycle KY in our region. So we like to say, when you come here, you're capital efficient. We have over $1.7 million of shared equipment on site that's high quality.

Yeah.

And we offer you a space to do science efficiently. So we extend your capital runway. We introduce you to folks beyond the community, if relevant. And we want you to be successful too. We don't just want to sell you space. So we're mission-driven infrastructure with our nonprofit 501 mission.

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. It's not just real estate. I mean, it's a big piece of it, of course, but it's gotta be more than just real estate. Build it, they will come kind of attitude. It really has to be, there's a support, there's people, we'll make this work, we'll try to make you successful and be a part of your journey too. That makes for sustainability.

It does, because folks need to see wins. If you wanna activate local capital, because we do have a lot of local capital here in Kentucky.

Yeah.

Tons of money. But the hard part about that is that it's life sciences, and the average person thinks life sciences is therapeutics that take 15 to 20 years to get to market and a billion dollars to get to the patient. And that's true to an extent. But life sciences can be R&D tools, it could be diagnostics, it could be like physical products. Or maybe when you come to LifeSci KY or an incubator, we're not always looking for unicorns and exits that are around $500 million. We're looking for people that want to start businesses.

Yeah.

So maybe you're a clinician at a university, you have an idea, you don't want to innovate on that university campus because then they're going to take your IP. You could come to our space. We don't take your IP, we don't take equity. You can just come here and start your business and you can do that. So what means something to us is jobs. So people posting, I have one job open here, I have 2 jobs open there. That gives like my former self when I was in my PhD, that could have been a job opportunity for me.

100%.

I'm gonna go work at a biotech after I graduate and They're from Cincinnati Children's Hospital or University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky. That is exciting because again, goes back to the people conversation, the density conversation. The more people in the community, the more ideas. Like we have 2 companies right now. One just came in and they saw this other biotech and they were like, whoa, what you're doing is so cool. Let's collaborate. And now they're going to collaborate. And that doesn't happen without density and interaction. And that's what we're about. But community, just like saying, hey, we're nice. It's not enough. No, not enough. Yeah. Has to be a little bit more. Has to be more.

And we're nice and cheap. Well, there's a little bit more to that story for sure.

So always think about how can this entrepreneur win? They have fiduciary responsibilities too. They need to return money to their investors. Like, These people need to make money.

Yep.

Right. Yeah.

Well, I like that. I think that community, that support, and also sort of like not everything's going to be a unicorn, but it doesn't mean it isn't going to be successful and help patients. And to bring all of those pieces together is no small feat. And I love that you guys are doing it in Kentucky and being able to be successful and sustainable. That's no easy feat. So, so cheers to that.

Cheers to that. It's hard, you know, it is hard incubator industry, but very, uh, one thing I always appreciate though is everyone's really nice and, you know, wants you to succeed.

So it goes back to that nice thing.

You know, they are nice. I have a lot of different operator friends at different incubators. Um, I'm visiting a few in Boston in the next couple months, but you know, it just, it's all about the entrepreneur and how to make them successful. And even if, even if something folds in our incubator, We want this person to be empowered to start a new company too. I don't know if this is the same with your geographical location, but sometimes where we are, if something fails, it's like, oof.

Wow. It hits us. Yeah. It hits different.

It's like, well, I think you're done here. So.

We want you to walk across the street and start your next company or find your next job and not move away. And I think that's the other piece. We're nice, but we want you to win. There's nice and, and there's a little bit of a superficial nice of like, oh yeah, good job. But there's, I think there's a deeper piece of, in a community that we want you to be successful and win because if you win, we all win. And that's great.

Yes.

And the more people that think like that, the more successes we have, even down going back to academia, you know, in, in Boston, when you're innovating, not even cutthroat, but when you're innovating, even as a PhD postdoc, Your goal is to have a biotech company. Anything you do, you want to be part of some type of company that you are inventing intentionally. Like that, that is it. Like, cuz everyone's doing it. It's normal here. I don't know the same thing with you guys, but yeah, you like invent and it's like accidental. Ooh, I think this has potential. Let's go find someone to run the company. Whatever.

Let's go find someone.

Yeah. Let's find someone. Mm-hmm. Not like the other way around, like I'm inventing this and it's It's going to be awesome and I'm going to have a company.

And I'm going to take it forward. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just attitude. So the more people that come into these spaces and change that type of attitude locally, it's just going to build on itself. But again, going back, it's about realizing where you are and realizing what you have and are doing well and what you don't have and are not doing well. So tough conversations.

Tough conversations, but that visibility is possibility, and seeing someone be successful in your literal backyard, I think, is important for people to see and, and take that big leap. You, you and I have both taken that leap out of academia, and it was scary at first, but now I can't— I'm sure you're the same way— I can't imagine doing it any differently.

Me either. And, you know, I really want folks in academia to be successful, definitely. I don't think it was for me. But we need them to be successful because otherwise there's no, nothing.

Gotta find those technologies somewhere. So, yeah.

So that's why it's so important with community and culture and, you know, what incubators do, you know, the whole industry to bring these scientists together and brainstorm what they can do with their science. Because they're essential. They're the lifeblood for these ecosystems. Kendall Square would not have been possible Without the density of academia there. That's why it happens, because the engine was there.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a big piece of it. Well, this has been great, and I hope that our listeners can take away some inspiration if they are in the lesser-known hubs. And if you are in one of the hubs, if you're out there pounding the pavements in Kendall Square, come and talk to us out here in the Gulf South and in Kentucky, which we're calling, you know, Gulf South adjacent. So since you guys keep talking about it.

conference. Genuinely, I don't know. I like to say the Mid-South. You say the Gulf South.

We say in Oklahoma, like Midwest, but is it Midwest? Is it Heartland? I mean, there's all kinds of different terms and whether we're Southern or not just depends.

We'll love to have you. We have great bourbon.

We'll take that bourbon and make that into an amazing cocktail. We'll make a Boulevardier and I like that. I like that we also support each other in this area too. So we want to see people successful.

So, love it.

Well, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate that. And I hope our listeners take some inspiration and some aspiration and of course, come join us here in the middle part of the country.

Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again.

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This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.