Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Cluster has landed its first business incubator tenant while simultaneously securing a Community Impact Grant from Rotary Club of Spokane 21, says Executive Director Michaele Armstrong.

Biotech startup Glyciome LLC is the first company to move into Evergreen Bio’s new bioscience business incubator, located at 10220 N. Nevada, in Spokane. The 5,000-square-foot facility can accommodate between three and five companies, Armstrong notes, adding she’s currently in negotiations with a second company and beginning talks with a third.

With Rotary Club’s $1,960 investment into the incubator’s collaborative structure, Armstrong says she feels validated in the organization’s promise and footing.

“Glyciome’s trust and Rotary’s investment show how regional partnerships can turn constrained forces into powerful outcomes that no single organization could achieve alone,” Armstrong says in a statement.

Glyciome is a biotech startup led by co-founders Joanna Ellington, Ph.D., and Dennis Clifton, doctor of pharmacy. Established in 2018, the company is pioneering therapeutics that address the connection between microbiota and cancer, and advancing genital health in critical areas like cervical and penile cancer, says Ellington. 

This month, the Spokane-based company was awarded a $2.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, an arm of the National Institutes of Health. The capital will fund Glyciome’s Phase II clinical trials to commercialize the company’s patented, prebiotic, personal lubricant. The product helps keep good bacteria and gets rid of bad bacteria, Ellington explains.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Ellington says, noting that National Cancer Institute funding was stalled in January, just days before the company was supposed to receive its grant.

Previously, in 2023, the company completed its National Cancer Institute Phase I trial for a cervical cancer prevention probiotic device. The following year, they received a $455,000 matching grant from the Health Sciences & Services Authority of Spokane County.  

“We’re so grateful to HSSA,” she says. “The funding helped keep our lights on. We never would have made it with the gap in funding.”

Glyciome is the second company Ellington has founded. In the 90s, she also founded Bio-OriGyn LLC, which developed a pre-seed vaginal lubricant for couples with fertility issues. Ellington says the product became a national best-seller. She later sold Bio-OriGyn to an international company.