Michael Gabridge spent almost two years filling up the Medical College of Georgia’s business incubator.

Now full, the incubator’s director can’t wait for the startup companies to get out.

The purpose of the Life Sciences Business Development Center, on MCG’s campus, is to house new biotech companies, provide lab space and resources to help them grow and then see them on their way.

“I spent a lot of time and energy identifying companies and getting them moved in. Once they’re moved in, I will spend a lot of time and energy so that they’ll outgrow the space and move out. It’s a curious business,” Dr. Gabridge said.

Bidding them adieu would mean a success story for the incubator, MCG, Augusta and Georgia, he said.

The center, completed in October 2004, will reach full occupancy in July, with a total of four new companies whose goals range from processing prostate biopsies to fighting bioterrorism.

“It’s the first point in time we can say 100 percent occupancy is imminent,” Dr. Gabridge said.

Columbia-based EMThrax LLC plans to move into the its new lab and offices next month. EMThrax’s focus is finding a better vaccine for anthrax that can be mass produced, CEO Michael Stump said.

Current vaccines are difficult to mass produce and not always efficient, he said. The company’s vaccine, now in the animal-testing phase, would prevent anthrax spores from releasing toxins in the body and could be purchased by the federal government, Mr. Stump said.

Another new company joining the incubator is Manoa Transgenics. This company’s researchers hope to use a patent-pending process to insert genes into the chromosomes of an organism to possibly treat disease or genetic defects.

The company, formed by Augusta lawyer Patrick R. Brown and MCG radiation oncologist Joe Kaminski, also plans to fully move in next month.

“We’re just a startup that’s learning to walk,” Mr. Brown said in his incubator office. “The support we get here is amazing.”

The rest of the incubator space is leased by ClariPath Laboratories, which processes prostate biopsies, and Xytex Research Inc., which is researching better ways to freeze sperm and ovarian tissue.

All incubator tenants pay $2,000 a month in rent. For that they get their own furnished office space and research labs and access to $100,000 in lab equipment.

The idea is that the startup companies can put their money into research, instead of overhead, helping the odds that they succeed, Dr. Gabridge said.

The development center operates on about $300,000 annually, supported in part by its rent, MCG, the Medical College of Georgia Research Institute and the state. Last year, the center was named one of six Centers of Innovation by the state – the only one devoted to the life sciences.

Craig Lesser, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said he views the incubator as an instrumental step in increasing Georgia’s status as a center for biotechnology.

“It clearly fits in the governor’s target initiatives,” Mr. Lesser said.

Cancer and vaccine research are two priorities within the state’s biotech plans, Mr. Lesser said, and the incubator has ongoing research concerning both.

To strengthen the incubator, the 2007 state budget calls for an additional $500,000 for the center to buy more specialized equipment to benefit the start-up companies and to provide additional resources such as grant-writing classes, Dr. Gabridge said.

The incubator is hoping to match these startups with capital – something all four companies need to grow. A Columbia-based venture capital firm, East Bay Capital Ventures, was established in 2005 and is in talks to invest in business at the incubator, Dr. Gabridge said.

If all goes well, each of the tenants will eventually outgrow their space, become profitable and leave, Dr. Gabridge said. The plan is to establish a waiting list of companies to fill the vacancies, he said.

The first graduate is most likely to be ClariPath, Dr. Gabridge said. The company has been there for a year and is already analyzing prostate biopsies for doctors throughout the Southeast.

“For such a young company to have significant sales is an unusual phenomenon,” he said.

The hope is that these “graduates” of the incubator will choose to remain local, Dr. Gabridge said.

“The last thing you want them to do is spend the time and energy, and then move out of the state,” he said.

State leaders have stressed biotechnology in recent years through initiatives such as the incubator. Accounting firm Ernst & Young ranked Georgia seventh in the nation for biotechnology centers in its 2006 Global Biotechnology report.

Mr. Brown, of Manoa Technology, views Augusta specifically as a growing area for the state’s biotech business, citing an intelligentsia present in the community that’s on the rise.

All four companies hope to grow with it.