In Houston’s Texas Medical Center Helix Park, RBL LLC is transforming the path from scientific discovery to lifesaving therapies. This new biotech venture creation studio is designed to rapidly build companies around cutting-edge innovations from Rice University’s Biotech Launch Pad, aiming to bring advanced treatments to patients faster and more efficiently.
RBL focuses on biologics — therapies derived from living cells such as engineered proteins and gene therapies. These treatments hold the potential to address diseases once considered untreatable, but their development is complex and time-consuming. RBL is tackling these challenges by streamlining the process, pairing world-class research with entrepreneurial expertise to turn ideas into real-world solutions.
“The goal of RBL is to create treatments for patients,” said Dr. Rima Chakrabarti, RBL co-founder and managing partner.
Citing cost and time efficiencies and resources unique to Houston, Chakrabarti said RBL can develop these treatments “faster than others could ever dream.”
RBL is designed to bridge the gap between academic discovery and clinical application. Situated in Helix Park, it benefits from its proximity to Rice and the Texas Medical Center, giving it access to top-tier clinical resources and facilities.
“We’re starting with unmet medical need, designing products around the [bioengineering] platforms we’ve got at Rice and turning [them] into therapeutic products,” said Paul Wotton, RBL CEO and chairman of the board.
The studio builds on the work of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, which provides innovative, early-stage technologies ready for development.
“We’re creating that infrastructure to support innovators, because we understand how difficult it is to translate discovery into an actual treatment,” said Omid Veiseh, professor of bioengineering at Rice, a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar and director of the Launch Pad.
Paul Cherukuri, Rice’s vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer, calls RBL a groundbreaking model for translating academic discoveries into real-world impact. “This is a game changer,” he said. “By combining scientific excellence with clinical and commercial expertise, we’re creating a blueprint for driving biotech innovation.”
With its focus on collaboration and cutting-edge science and its unique location and mission, RBL aims to establish Houston as a leader in life sciences innovation and to deliver lifesaving treatments to patients worldwide.