Biotech Startup and Research Spinoff Tiny Cargo Expands in the City of Roanoke

ROANOKE, VA—The Tiny Cargo Company, a biotech start-up from Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, is expanding in the City of Roanoke. This expansion will create three jobs and $500,000 in capital investment and upfitting an existing 10,800-square-foot warehouse to include a clean room and production space. Tiny Cargo will soon manufacture exosomes for worldwide supply and XoLacta, a drug/therapeutic targeted to treat radiation exposure and as a radio protectant during cancer treatment. This is the first facility to utilize a clean room for commercial production in the Roanoke Region of Virginia.   

Dr. Spencer Marsh, Tiny Cargo’s Chief Scientific Officer, stated, “Tiny Cargo’s purpose is to unlock the healing power of exosomes for all humanity, and with this, its ambition is to be a global leader in the supply and licensing of exosome technology. Establishing our manufacturing base in Roanoke with the help of the Roanoke Regional Partnership has been an invaluable contribution to our journey toward these goals. Their understanding and belief in advanced biotech manufacturing and its importance to the region is evidenced by their significant investment and the speed with which they have moved to support us.”

Tiny Cargo, led by Professor Robert Gourdie and Dr. Marsh, has developed and patented the world’s first scalable process for isolating cow milk exosomes. Exosomes are tiny particles that all cells secrete that contain signaling messages to turn on and off crucial functions in the body. They have a vast range of potential, high-value applications, from fortifying infant formulas to adult supplements for gut, bone and muscle health to advanced skin repair serums in the beauty industry. Tiny Cargo is the first to produce exosomes at scale and will produce them from milk sourced from Homestead Creamery in Franklin County.

The Innovation Corridor, a collaboration of investments by Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic, the City of Roanoke and the Commonwealth of Virginia, has helped spur the Tiny Cargo commercialization project.

Tiny Cargo’s custom-made clean room is the first of its kind in the region and utilizes quality, existing industrial space. The Roanoke Regional Partnership assisted Tiny Cargo Company in identifying a workable real estate solution, allowing them to keep their expansion project in the region. The Partnership connected the Roanoke Valley Development Corporation (RVDC) and the Greater Roanoke Valley Development Foundation (GRVDF) with the company to purchase a building at 621 Fugate Road NE in the City of Roanoke. The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce provided administrative support. Thanks to the speed at which all parties moved to broker this deal, Tiny Cargo expects the site to be operational starting in March 2025.

“The Roanoke Regional Partnership is a connector of business to resources with powerful insights into the region’s real estate market and advantages for business growth. It was an honor to apply those competencies to help achieve the expansion of Tiny Cargo in the Roanoke Region,” said John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “This initial investment is sure to be a catalyst fueling additional growth of commercialized, private startups spinning out of the region’s innovation corridor.”

Ken Randolph, Chairman of the RVDC and GRVDF, stated, “Tiny Cargo is an impressive company that grew out of research being conducted in the Roanoke Innovation Corridor, and we are excited about the opportunity to assist in its continued growth. The prospect of retaining and growing a biotech company like Tiny Cargo is something the RVDC founders might have dreamed of in 1953 when they founded the Corporation; we’re honored to carry the torch.”

The company grew from Gourdie’s research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. “Moving biomedical discoveries from the lab and into the service of patients is an important component of the translational biomedical enterprise – one that is embraced here at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute,” said Michael Friedlander, vice president for health sciences and technology at Virginia Tech and executive director of the research institute. “Dr. Gourdie’s vision and innovations emanated from very basic biological research questions bridging the divide between pure science and service to humanity through Tiny Cargo’s growing success. Moreover, seeing postdoctoral fellows such as Dr. Marsh move their laboratory work into applications and commercialization sets a model for other trainees and students who aspire to make foundational discoveries as well as to translate them for the greater good.”

Friedlander said the research institute is proud to contribute to the local economy through a combination of research grant awards, employment opportunities, and the spinoff of successful commercialization enterprises such as Tiny Cargo.

“We are thrilled to see Tiny Cargo expanding and creating high-wage employment opportunities in the City of Roanoke,” says Mayor Sherman Lea. “Bold vision and forward-thinking investments from Carilion Clinic, Virginia Tech, the Commonwealth of Virginia in partnership with the City of Roanoke have borne fruit with this high-impact expansion.”

Eric Sichau, president and CEO of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, said, “Tiny Cargo’s investment in the City of Roanoke and broader region of Virginia’s Blue Ridge represents another step in the incredible trajectory the region is heading when it comes to biotech research and innovation.”

The Roanoke Innovation Corridor, which spans Jefferson Avenue from downtown Roanoke to Carilion Roanoke Memorial, is home to cutting-edge research thanks largely to Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Carilion Innovates. In late 2023, the Commonwealth of Virginia announced a $90 million investment in Virginia’s Research Triangle, which includes FBRI at VTC. With that investment, the brilliant minds already at work, the supportive ecosystem in place, and Tiny Cargo’s expansion, the Roanoke Region is on the cusp of becoming the state’s hub for biotech and health science-related products.