Masdar City has announced the launch of Biosphere Labs, the GCC’s first commercially scaled shared laboratory facility, developed in partnership with M42 and Attentive Science. Unveiled at the BIO International Convention 2026 in San Diego, the facility gives researchers, startups, and biotechnology companies immediate access to specialist bench space, advanced equipment, and operational support within Abu Dhabi’s life sciences ecosystem.

The launch addresses a longstanding barrier in the regional life sciences sector: the cost, complexity, and time involved in establishing laboratory operations. By offering ready-to-use infrastructure, Biosphere Labs enables organisations to begin research and development work from day one, without the overhead of building independent lab capacity.

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Biosphere Labs sits within Masdar City’s HELM cluster standing for Health, Endurance, Longevity, and Medicine which became operational in 2025 and serves as Abu Dhabi’s integrated platform for medical innovation, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and advanced biotechnology. The broader Masdar City life sciences ecosystem already hosts organisations including the Abu Dhabi Biobank, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, and Insilico Medicine.

Attentive Science, which initiated and will operate Biosphere Labs, described the facility as the outcome of more than two years of collaboration between government, industry, and academia. M42 and Masdar City serve as founding partners, with the three organisations collectively positioning the lab as a catalyst for attracting global talent and translating scientific discovery into commercial impact across the region and beyond.

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