Avastus Opens New Vivarium to Serve the Preclinical Research Needs of Boston's Biotech Community

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Avastus Preclinical Services LLC, a leading vivarium service provider to the Boston/Cambridge biotech industry, announces the grand opening of its new West Cambridge flagship facility scheduled for December 1, 2018. The 14,000 square foot single story building, featuring 14 rental suites, a wet lab, tissue culture, necropsy and surgery rooms will give the company a strong foothold in the rapidly expanding Fresh Pond biotech cluster. "It is an amazing feeling to take your first walk through a building you had previously only seen on paper and realize the sheer size of it", says Andreas Thomas, controller at Avastus. "We poured an enormous amount of work into the planning of the facility, which led to a building that is 100% custom designed to our specific needs."

The new facility, at 42-44 Spinelli Place, features a state-of-the-art HVAC system that will deliver a consistent, year-round temperature of 70°F (+-2) with 50%RH (+-5%), and animals will be housed in the latest InnoVive disposable caging system. The company plans to phase out operations in its current mid-Cambridge location and is confident that both current and prospective customers will find great value in its new venue. "We pride ourselves on offering all-inclusive pricing to our rental customers which includes IACUC, husbandry, PPE, animal intake and waste removal. Our customers can fully concentrate on their research and leave the rest to us," says Thomas.

In addition to renting holding and procedure room space, Avastus also operates as a CRO for those customers who prefer to outsource their animal work, often because they lack the necessary in-house technical know-how. The Avastus CRO team boasts over 60 years of combined experience and can take on projects that range from single-day blood draws to complex multi-month cancer studies. More recently, there has also been a move toward hybrid models where customers both rent space and engage the help of Avastus technicians to execute their studies. "We deal with a lot of start-ups who are still assembling their team when they first approach us," explains Thomas. "They are often unsure on how to proceed and highly value our input in the decision process. We have helped more than one customer on their path to FDA approval".

For further information and inquiries, please go to https://www.avastusps.com.

SOURCE Avastus