The second floor of CSU Spur’s Hydro building might be one of the busiest places on campus. On any given day, you’ll find visitors learning about the power of erosion at the stream table and watching live trout dart through the water at the nearby fish tank. 

What these visitors might not realize is that they’re just a few feet away from the headquarters of a visionary startup like GenesisTissue. 

“That’s what CSU Spur has always been about: serving as a melting pot where school groups, teachers, researchers, college students, industry professionals and more come together in the same building and draw inspiration from one another,” said Rico Munn, executive vice chancellor for the CSU System. 

Weimer’s team is made up of three bioengineers and materials scientists who work in the rentable lab and office spaces at Hydro. GenesisTissue’s work is in the preclinical development phase; the company hopes to eventually test its product in human clinical trials. (CNN recently featured the work.) 

“We definitely want to be the most competitive product on the market,” said Ameya Narkar, a senior biomedical engineer for GenesisTissue. “I feel so lucky to be part of a team that’s helping to solve such an important biomedical problem, and doing it in such a unique space.”

Narkar is part of a small but mighty team. His role centers on finding ways to integrate 3D printing, biomaterial development and bioengineering models into a cohesive workflow. His colleague Kyle Chin specializes in developing the scaffold materials and optimizing the 3D printing performance. 

Another team member, Kianna Young, leads the bioengineering efforts by evaluating the scaffolds for safety and performance. 

“Our research is very ambitious in that we’re building something that doesn’t already exist, and it’s exciting to be part of something that’s brand new,” Young said. “It’s also amazing to think about the potential applications this has in the future in helping to rebuild other tissues and other parts of the body.”

Their space at Spur is near other labs occupied by CSU Professors Elizabeth Ryan and Aydin Berenjin, and the GenesisTissue team says they’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to interact with other scientists and share resources and ideas as they’ve crossed paths on campus. 

“I’ve never really worked anywhere before where you’re meeting all these scientists and you look out your window and see tree research being done, there are animal surgeries happening just across the street, and food scientists taste testing new projects just a building away,” Narkar said. 

Chin added: “There’s a good energy here, for sure. We had live music happening outside all during the National Western Stock show, and also had people stopping us and asking about what we do. That doesn’t happen in just any office.” 

Weimer said Ryan gave her the first tour of the lab space at Spur and she signed the lease without having hired a single employee. Now, she can’t imagine building GenesisTissue anywhere else.

“We call it ‘the adventures of Spur.’ You never know what’s happening outside your door,” she said. “I know I could have looked at a more traditional biotech space, but the energy at Spur is addicting. There’s always positive energy, and that’s an incredible thing when you’re running a high-risk, fast-paced startup. You need that positive support and collaboration, and they have it here in spades.”