A community of discovery, filled with curated intellectual programming and interdisciplinary engagement opportunities.
Bridgeside features a mix of wet and dry labs, offices, and research and classroom space, but its purpose expands deeper than the physical building. With the goal of introducing intentional facility-based programming and continued collaboration between tenant departments and the greater Pittsburgh area, this active innovation ecosystem brings people together to spark new ideas and spur innovation.
Meet the Owners
THE UNIVERSITY FINANCING FOUNDATION
The University Financing Foundation, known simply as “TUFF,” is a national non-profit developer whose core mission is providing facilities and equipment to institutions of education and research at below the cost of market. TUFF was founded in Atlanta, GA, in 1982, and celebrates 40 years of developing, financing, owning, and operating knowledge communities across the United States. TUFF has deep experience in the cultivation of ecosystems that match university and research institutions with government and private industry collaborators. TUFF fulfills the core mission of supporting education and research by actively building communities, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and nurturing and accelerating the ideas, innovators, and supporters who strive to make the world a better place.
COLLABORATIVE REAL ESTATE
Collaborative Real Estate (Collaborative) is a full-service real estate firm specializing in knowledge-based real estate and university research parks. With their expertise in development, asset/property management/engineering, and community activation, they have great insight into world-class technical building operations, as well as strategies for enhancing user engagement within office and academic facilities.
They are experienced in the day-to-day maintenance, property management, asset management, and community activation of university-anchored medical, research, and lab facilities across the Southeast and the Midwest, and their specialization was born out of recognition that instead of the bricks-and-mortar, the true value of these places stem from the people and discoveries. Their core team of specialized managers and engineers have decades of experience instilling their knowledge and expertise across their portfolio’s onsite personnel, cultivating working relationships with essential stakeholders on the ground to ensure their projects are operated and maintained at the highest standards.
At Bridgeside, we are centered around building culture and cultivating data-driven connections by understanding our members, measuring collaboration goals, and achieving desired results through events, communications, intellectual custom programming, and more.
Meet the Tenants
Avista Therapeutics
Avista Therapeutics develops innovative gene therapies for retinal diseases, including rare ophthalmic conditions that have a profound impact on quality of life. They leverage their computationally guided scAAVengr platform to generate and validate a toolkit of proprietary AAV vectors. Their quantitative, in vivo-based approach and clinical ophthalmology expertise allows them to rapidly translate new gene therapies to the clinic.
Noveome Biotherapeutics
Noveome is advancing its ST266 biologic, a first-of-its-kind, multi-targeted secretome containing hundreds of biologically active proteins and other factors crucial to neuroprotection, the modulation of inflammation, cell recovery, and healing. They believe this novel biologic holds significant clinical potential across a range of important underserved conditions in ophthalmology, neurology, dermatology — and beyond.
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh is a top-ranked, public institution in Pennsylvania and a member of the Association of American Universities of leading research universities. With our discoveries, we are recognized as one of the most innovative universities in the world. They invent the paths of the future and forge ahead.
The mission of the Aging Institute is to understand how and why people age and to leverage this information for new therapies to treat age-related diseases.
Center for Craniofacial and Dental Genetics
The University of Pittsburgh Center for Craniofacial and Dental Genetics (CCDG) identifies genes for complex craniofacial and dental disorders in humans. Based in the Pitt School of Dental Medicine, members of the center work with colleagues throughout the U.S., Europe, Central and South America, Asia, and Africa, using sophisticated statistical and molecular genetic methods to map and identify genes, develop phenotypes, and investigate behavioral and epidemiological factors that influence gene expression.
Department of Physical Therapy
The vision for the Department of Physical Therapy is to drive transformational change in the field of physical therapy by developing a diverse, competent, compassionate, and ethical workforce through equitable and inclusive physical therapy education, research, and community service.
Department of Occupational Therapy
The future of occupational therapy is now. At Pitt, they’re creating agents of change by immersing students in a wealth of innovative theories and approaches. Renowned faculty contribute breakthrough research that becomes best practices, while expanded clinical experiences challenge OTs to take their skills to the next level.
Communication Science & Disorders
Pitt’s Department of Communication Science and Disorders is making an impact on clinical best practices through exceptional academic programs and interdisciplinary research collaborations. They not only study the processes of human language, speech, voice, swallowing, hearing, and balance, but they also delve into the nature of these disorders, and how to evaluate, manage, and prevent them.
This multi-disciplinary program offers everything needed to become a first responder. Their faculty has literally written the book on EMS education. They personally guide students through a combination of classroom and laboratory coursework so they are prepared for meaningful clinical rotations at world-renowned EMS agencies and healthcare institutions. Each of their students typically tallies more than 540 hours of clinical training and collectively has 15,000 patient encounters. And their 100% pass rate on the National Registry of EMTs licensing Exam reflects the quality and rigor of the program.
The Book
The Book encapsulates the events and stories that define a specific community. Each issue of The Book depicts a moment in time: a visual retrospect of how we learned and grew – both personally and professionally. Compiled together, these stories form the historical record of the evolution of our communities.