Ask Dr. David Hirschberg about biotech, and he can give you a wide variety of examples.
“Biology creates medical products. All our food and everything,” says Hirschberg. “All the things we make.”
In an incubator at 2304 S. Jefferson, not far from the University Washington Tacoma, Hirschberg wants to see students use biotech to create jobs and high-paying careers that stay in the city.
The space is messy now, but things are just getting started for the incubator called the Readiness Acceleration and Innovation Network, known by the acronym RAIN.
Partners including the University of Washington Tacoma, MultiCare Health System, the Madigan Army Medical Center and the city of Tacoma are teaming up to help starts-ups get started.
Hirschberg, RAIN’s CEO and UWT professor, says Tacoma is now where Seattle was a few decades ago.
“In the 70’s, there was this energy in Seattle, and the 80’s, where these biotech companies emerged. And it was a lot of people with a lot of talent,” said Hirschberg. “And I think the conditions are right in Tacoma now.”
So how does a biotech incubator help create jobs? Hirschberg says he works with what's at hand and encourages challenging ideas.
The building housing the incubator was formerly the Nativity House, a Catholic church community service with a large kitchen to feed the hungry. So Hirschberg decided to begin with food.
“Cheeses, breads, those are all biotechnology,” he said.
A major goal for RAIN is to encourage graduates from nearby UWT to keep their talents in Tacoma, and not take them to other cities, by offering them challenging and good-paying careers in the city.
UWT grad Dane Jessen says it's likely he, too, would have left town. He interviewed for work in Seattle shortly after graduation
Now, he's excited about the opportunity to work as a program manager at the incubator.
“If you have the right people in this place, with the right attitude and the right energy, then cool things happen from that,” said Jessen.”
You can learn more about RAIN at their website: https://www.rainincubator.org/
Cox Media Group
