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ila Sciences, the Flagship‑Pioneering‑backed AI life‑sciences startup, has secured a 235,500‑sq‑ft lease at Alewife Park in Cambridge, the largest laboratory lease in Greater Boston for Q3 2025, according to the Boston Business Journal (BBJ). The deal covers two buildings—Alewife Park 1 and 5—and marks a milestone in the company’s rapid ascent since its March 2025 launch. The space arrives in a “lab‑ready shell” and will need a full buildout before occupancy.
Alewife Park is a 26.5‑acre life‑sciences campus under development by IQHQ Inc., featuring five lab and office buildings. CBRE brokered the lease and noted that life‑sciences leasing activity jumped 150 % in Q3 versus Q2, yet vacancy rates hit a record 27.7 % due to nearly 800,000 sq‑ft of speculative space entering the market without pre‑leases.
Lila Sciences has been a top‑watch startup in the life‑sciences and AI arenas this year. After a $200 million seed round, the company raised $235 million in Series A, reaching a valuation of roughly $1.23 billion and officially becoming a unicorn, BBJ reported. Founded in Flagship’s Cambridge labs in 2023, Lila is building a “scientific superintelligence platform” that aims to power fully autonomous laboratories capable of conducting advanced experiments in life sciences, chemistry, and materials science with minimal human intervention. The technology merges large scientific datasets with AI to generate hypotheses, design experiments, and interpret results, essentially reimagining the scientific method through automation and computation.
Earlier this year, Lila had about 100 employees and announced plans to more than double its workforce by the end of 2025. The company is expanding its presence at 140 First Street in Cambridge and is looking to add more space to support its growth, though it has not confirmed whether it will retain the First Street location or the exact timing of the Alewife move.
Key figures in Lila’s leadership include geneticist George Church (chief scientist), Molly Gibson (president of future science), and Rafael Gómez‑Bombarelli (chief science officer for materials). CEO Geoff von Malzahn, a veteran of Flagship Pioneering, leads the multidisciplinary team that blends AI, materials science, and operations expertise.
Greater Boston remains a hub for biotech and deep‑tech innovation, and Lila’s expansion signals strong investor confidence in AI‑powered scientific research—even amid broader market uncertainties. As BBJ noted, Lila is part of a new wave of startups betting that autonomous labs and AI‑driven discovery will define the next frontier in science and innovation.
