Boulder’s Emerging Powerhouse — The Rise of a Bioscience Economy
June 30, 2025
Originally published by the Daily Camera, June 28, 2025.
What if Boulder’s next billion-dollar breakthrough is not in aerospace or quantum, but in biotechnology?
That question is no longer hypothetical. CNBC recently spotlighted Boulder as one of the fastest-growing life sciences hubs in the country, driven by record investment, surging lab demand, and a collaborative innovation ecosystem. Every business leader, regardless of sector, should be paying attention.
Boulder is steadily charting its course as a premier bioscience center. With more than 300 life sciences companies and nearly 8,000 professionals across drug development, diagnostics and biomanufacturing, bioscience is now a core part of the region’s economic landscape. Anchoring this growth is CU Boulder and its BioFrontiers Institute, a translational research hub where discovery turns into real-world applications.
Boulder’s innovation ecosystem is expanding. Startups like Watchmaker Genomics are developing technologies to accelerate genomic diagnostics over the next decade. These ventures represent a new wave of science where artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and biology converge.
Enveda Biosciences uses AI to explore nature’s chemical libraries and recently secured $130 million to scale its work. Medtronic is growing its footprint with a new Lafayette campus. Biodesix is advancing lung disease and oncology diagnostics. Bioproduction leaders like KBI Biopharma and Corden Pharma are delivering therapies that serve global markets.
This is not future potential. This is present-day impact.
And it is no coincidence. It reflects the strength of Boulder’s innovation culture and the coordinated efforts of local and state partners.
The momentum is backed by data. Colorado’s life sciences sector raised $2.15 billion in 2024. The region now employs more than 41,000 bioscience professionals and ranks among the highest nationally for bachelor’s degree attainment. Nearly 3.5 million square feet of lab space is under development across the state.
CBRE ranks the Denver-Boulder region among the top 20 global hubs for life sciences research and development and among the top 25 for venture capital. BioMed Realty’s $625 million acquisition of Boulder’s Flatiron Park, a 23-building campus now being retrofitted for life sciences, signals global confidence in our biotech ecosystem. Boulder now stands alongside innovation titans like Boston, San Diego, and Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
As Matt Wiggins, associate vice president of economic vitality and special projects at the Boulder Chamber, observes: “Boulder’s bioscience ecosystem is maturing rapidly, and global investors are not just noticing. They are investing. Our talent, research and infrastructure are positioning us at the forefront of health innovation.”
The Colorado Bioscience Association, the state’s leading voice for the sector, has helped shape this trajectory. In 2025, it relaunched its “Colorado Hub for Health Impact” campaign to promote the state as a national leader in health innovation. The campaign highlights key assets, including a skilled and inclusive workforce, scalable lab space, competitive business costs, world-class research institutions and top-ranked quality of life.
As Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of the association, notes: “Our ecosystem has raised in excess of a billion dollars for seven consecutive years, and early-stage funding in Colorado in 2023 grew faster than in other life sciences markets across the country.”
At the regional level, the U.S. 36 Life Sciences Collaborative, led by the Boulder Chamber, is aligning public and private partners to accelerate infrastructure, expand workforce pipelines, and elevate national visibility for the corridor’s bioscience sector. Partners include the Boulder Economic Council and the cities of Broomfield, Lafayette, Louisville, Westminster and the town of Superior.
With a deep bench of life sciences and advanced industries, ample commercial space, and direct access to Denver International Airport, the U.S. 36 corridor is ideally positioned for innovative, fast-growing companies, from startups to Fortune 500 firms.
Bioscience is not a specialized sector operating in isolation. It is an economic multiplier. These companies rely on legal counsel, lab builders, information technology platforms, human resources firms and a broader professional services network. In this way, their impact extends across the economy, while also improving lives through better therapies, diagnostics and public health tools.
To Boulder’s business community: now is the time to lean in. Partner with a biotech startup. Sponsor a local innovation event. Add your voice to Boulder’s bioscience momentum. Policymakers should prioritize land use planning, permitting and incentives that support lab development. And Boulder residents: take pride. The innovation happening in your backyard is changing lives around the world.
Bioscience is Boulder’s emerging powerhouse. Let us keep cultivating, collaborating and competing together.