Nidus Center Signs First Tenant
Linda Tucci

The newly opened Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, a nonprofit incubator for plant and life sciences companies, has secured its first start-up business and expects to sign a second tenant soon.

GenChemiCs, which designs and improves chemical compounds using cutting-edge, computer-based technologies, will move in by March. Founded by University of Missouri-St. Louis chemistry professor William Welsh, the start-up already is doing business with a number of large companies, including Monsanto, Mallinckrodt, Searle and London-based AstraZeneca.

Libratto.com Inc., founded earlier this year by Washington University engineer Bob Nease and physician Avi Amin, develops applications for Internet-enabled cell phones. Those include a way to minimize prescription mistakes by linking prescribing physicians and pharmacists. Terms of its lease with Nidus are being worked out.

"We have seven other start-ups that we are serious about," said Robert Calcaterra, president and chief executive of Nidus since late 1998. The prospects include companies from both coasts as well as local start-ups, he said, and Nidus is moving quickly with all of them.

The Nidus Center, on the Monsanto campus, 893 N. Warson Road, is funded by Monsanto but governed by an independent board. The Nidus Center is considered an important player in the effort to make St. Louis a world leader in biotechnology and plant sciences.

Nidus is within walking distance of another key player, the $75 million Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, which is being built on land Monsanto donated in Creve Coeur. The research institute is a partnership of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Washington University, Monsanto, University of Missouri, Purdue University and University of Illinois.

St. Louis has a critical mass of researchers in the plant and biotech fields and a nascent group of entrepreneurs. But many experts agree that the area lacks the lab space and other infrastructure needed to retain companies that are often spawned by this expertise -- particularly ones that are beyond the incubator stage, Calcaterra said.

"Places like San Francisco, Michigan, Virginia are throwing tons of money into this. We have to ante up," he said.

The 41,000-square-foot Nidus Center can accommodate 12 to 15 entrepreneurs. Roughly half the space is devoted to wet and dry laboratories. Offices for entrepreneurs, meeting rooms and a reception area take up another 9,000 square feet.

GenChemiCs (GCC), which uses computers to do its business, is taking two offices, which Welsh hopes it soon will outgrow. The company developed clients while it was still writing its business plan. Revenue is expected to come from three sources: contract fees from clients, intellectual property from the molecular entities designed by GCC and computer-based tools designed by GCC to solve specific problems. The firm, which has a staff of 12 thus far, has fluency in a wide range of computer programming languages.

The company's current annual contracts range from $100,000 to $250,000 and are expected to total $1 million this year. That gives GenChemiCs a solid start but does not provide the capital needed to build staff or grow the business.

"When we have a business plan that is intact and complete, we will seek investment funding," Welsh said.

Less is known about Libratto.com Inc. Nease declined to give many specifics until the lease is signed.

Calcaterra, who began his career as a research manager for Monsanto, said he is confident he can help Nidus companies become successful.

Prior to coming to St. Louis, Calcaterra founded two business incubators: the Arizona Technology Incubator in 1992 and the Boulder (Colo.) Technology Incubator in 1989. Arizona Technology, during Calcaterra's tenure, brought $50 million and 250 jobs to the Phoenix metropolitan area.

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