Lab Space for Rent in San Francisco

Size

25,000 sq ft

Price

From $550,000/desk/mo

Biosafety

BSL-1, BSL-2

Availability

Limited

IndieBio was rebranded "SOSV SF" in early 2026 as SOSV widened its scope from biotech to all of deep tech; indiebio.co now redirects to sosv.com. Its Dogpatch facility at 2565 3rd Street packs 25,000 sq ft with 40 lab bench seats, 79 desks and BSL-1/2 wet labs alongside a dedicated 2,500 sq ft chemistry lab and a 2,000 sq ft food prototyping lab — an unusually broad instrument list including ICP-OES, GC-TOF MS, LC-MS, AKTA FPLC, MiSeq and Opentrons robots. Critically, this is not open-market rentable space: bench access comes only with admission to the 4–6 month cohort, which is paired with up to $550K in pre-seed funding for roughly 10% equity.

Size

Up to 40,000 sq ft

Price

From $1,000

Biosafety

Not published

Availability

Limited

JLABS is Johnson & Johnson's global life-science incubator network, offering wet lab benches, private lab suites and offices on a genuinely "no-strings-attached" basis — J&J takes no equity, claims no IP rights, and does not require confidential information to apply. Residents get capital-light access to shared instrumentation, EH&S and operations management, plus J&J scientific mentorship, investor/partnering days and QuickFire Challenge funding. Important caveat for 2026: JLABS has sharply contracted, closing Houston, Washington D.C. and Toronto and handing its NYC site to the New York Genome Center, leaving San Diego, South San Francisco and Boston (via LabCentral) as the only remaining North American physical sites.

Size

Not published

Price

On request

Biosafety

BSL-1, BSL-2

Availability

Available

MBC BioLabs is the Bay Area's largest biotech incubator network, running five campuses — 953 Indiana St and 135 Mississippi St in San Francisco plus three San Carlos sites — that together host 190+ resident companies and have launched over 500 startups since growing out of the QB3 Garages. Members rent benches, private lab rooms and offices on a flexible, pay-for-what-you-need basis, with access to millions of dollars of shared instrumentation including a dedicated Mass Spectrometry Center, hourly tissue-culture rooms, and rack-level freezer rental. Its differentiator is the pharma partner network (J&J Innovation, AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, Astellas and others) and the Golden Ticket program, which sponsors a full year of free lab space for selected startups.

Size

Not published

Price

On request

Biosafety

BSL-2

Availability

Limited

Mission BioCapital is an early-stage life science VC firm (founded 2009, currently investing out of its fifth fund) that pairs capital with physical bench space through its affiliated lab operator, MBC BioLabs. In the Bay Area it runs five campuses totalling roughly 200,000 sq ft — the 24,000 sq ft flagship at 953 Indiana in SF's Dogpatch (opened 2013, four blocks from UCSF, 125+ startups supported), 135 Mississippi near UCSF Mission Bay, and three San Carlos buildings including the 100,000 sq ft 1030 Brittan that opened in April 2025. Beyond its own sites, members and Platinum Program winners can access a wider affiliated network of 31 incubators across 22 cities in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan, scaling from a single bench to teams of 30+.

Size

Not published

Price

On request

Biosafety

Not published

Availability

Available

Alexandria LaunchLabs is the incubator platform of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, offering research-ready, fully furnished private and shared lab and office space to seed- and early-stage life science companies of roughly 1–35 people across six US clusters: New York City, Cambridge, Seattle, San Diego, the SF Bay Area (Stanford Research Park) and Research Triangle. What sets it apart from a typical incubator is that space sits inside Alexandria's Megacampus ecosystems and comes bundled with roughly 30 pieces of shared core equipment, curated programming and mentorship, plus direct access to startup capital through Alexandria Venture Investments and the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform. The NYC facility was the first laboratory space in the world to achieve a WELL Health-Safety Rating.

Size

Not published

Price

Flat-fee, all-inclusive subscription covering lab space, office space, equipment access and support services; rates not published — tour/call required

Biosafety

Not published

Availability

Ask provider

BADASS Labs (Bay Area Disruptor And Start Up Support Labs) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit biotech incubator operating two fully built-out wet lab campuses in Alameda, just across the bay from San Francisco — 25,000 sqft on Atlantic Ave and 32,000 sqft at Harbor Bay. As a nonprofit it takes no equity and makes no IP claims, charging a single flat all-inclusive fee that covers private or shared lab space, office space, 24/7 access to 45+ shared instruments, waste handling, permits and purchasing support. Leases start at a three-month minimum and members get reciprocal access across all sites, making it a fit for solo founders through 20+ person teams in cell/gene therapy, oncology, biomanufacturing and climate tech.

Size

6,000 sq ft

Price

From $750/bench/mo

Biosafety

Not published

Availability

Ask provider

Focus Innovation Studio is a boutique 6,000+ sq ft members' studio in SoMa that pairs a dedicated laboratory level with three floors of creative coworking, private offices, an art gallery and a roof deck — housed in the former Adolph Gasser Photography building, where startups literally work on the 75-year-old original benchtops. Scientists can start with a single bench and expand as they grow, with 24/7 access to shared molecular biology and chemistry equipment including laminar flow hoods, CO2 incubators, PCR thermocyclers, autoclave, -80°C freezers and liquid nitrogen cryostorage. Its unusual mix of artists, designers and technologists alongside life science founders — plus ONDA reciprocal access to coworking in 80+ cities — makes it a distinctly non-corporate alternative to standard biotech incubators.