Neighbors in collaboration: New partnerships emerge at Novum Labs
At Novum Labs, companies developing tomorrow’s solutions for human health come together. Side by side – and sometimes with each other’s help. OptiCell Solutions and Circio are the neighbors who turned proximity into collaboration.
Located on the seventh floor of Novum Research Park lies Novum Labs, the coworking environment where research and development take center stage. The facilities offer offices and laboratories for companies and researchers seeking to bring their innovations from idea to application. And since the opening in late 2024, the space has quickly filled with companies, people, and new collaborations – right in the heart of Flemingsberg’s growing life science cluster. Located side by side in the coworking community, OptiCell and Circio found each other early on and transformed synergy into concrete collaboration.
The partnership is built around two complementary areas. OptiCell Solutions works with cell collection using apheresis technology – a method where blood is drawn from a donor, specific cells are collected, and the remaining components are returned. This provides access to starting material that can be crucial for research and development in cell and gene therapy. Circio is developing the circular RNA platform circVec – a circRNA expression system designed to enhance and prolong protein expression for applications in gene and cell therapy.
“One of our tasks is to understand where this modification, developed as an alternative to mRNA and enhancer of DNA vector-based gene delivery, provides the greatest advantage. OptiCell Solutions supplies us with blood that gives access to primary human lymphocytes, T-cells, and other components we need to understand how our platform performs in them,” says Victor Levitsky, Chief Scientific Officer at Circio.
Every other week, they can collect blood from their neighbor to support the continued development of circled. A development moving at a rapid pace, where the platform has already demonstrated promising results in preclinical studies, for example in the eye and the heart. At the same time, Circio’s team has doubled in size since last year.
For OptiCell Solutions, collaborations like the one with Circio are a cornerstone in their business. The company’s mission is to support academia, healthcare, and industry in the development of future cell and gene therapies.
“The geographical proximity to our partners makes a real difference – it enables frequent interactions, quick decisions, and a dynamic everyday environment where ideas can be tested and developed in real time. It creates an ecosystem where innovation can truly thrive,” says Jarmo Henriksson, CEO of OptiCell Solutions
The company was the first tenant to establish at Novum Labs. Today, they have several collaborations – both within the coworking and across the wider Flemingsberg ecosystem, including Karolinska Institutet.
“Being one of the first actors at Novum Labs has been very significant for our development. It gave us not only access to modern, purpose-built laboratory environments, but also the opportunity to help shape the culture and collaborations from the very beginning. Since then, we have seen Novum Labs grow into a vibrant meeting place for life science companies, academia, and innovation. That is a development that strengthens the entire area and creates new opportunities for exchange, collaboration, and long-term growth – something we view very positively moving forward.”
From offices and laboratories to informal conversations in the corridor, the seventh floor of Novum Research Park has gradually become a coworking environment where collaborations also take shape. Victor Levitsky describes the on-site infrastructure and partnerships that have emerged since moving in last year as a key to continued development.
“Infrastructure is important, and sometimes in very unexpected ways. Suddenly you run into someone in the corridor, exchange ideas, and something pops up.”
