Lumen Bioscience has expanded into the space formerly occupied by the Essential Bakery on the northeast corner of 34th and Woodlawn just east of the transfer station. Lumen’s main office is just kitty corner across the street at 1441 N 34th St. The Essential Baking Company closed down their Wallingford cafe back in 2020, and the space has sat empty ever since.
I tried repeatedly to contact them to find out what they intend to use the new space for, but I got no replies. The old Essential Baking space seems considerably smaller than the space Lumen currently occupies, so I would guess that Lumen is adding to their office space rather than moving across the street. There also appears to be a renovation going on; not sure when that might be completed.
Not to be confused with Lumen Technologies of which CenturyLink is a part, Lumen Bioscience uses spirulina algae as a mechanism for delivery of “therapeutic proteins.” Spirulina is commonly used as a supplement, and I recall on my trips to New Zealand being offered gobs of it in smoothies.
The astonishingly high cost of traditional drug development meant that using orally delivered biologics to address therapeutic targets in the GI tract and other topical sites wasn’t commercially viable. That’s no longer true. Lumen’s patented biologic drug platform shortens the development process, reduces costs and risks, and accelerates time-to-market, making us the first company to make orally delivered antibody drugs commercially viable.
Lumen was founded in 2017, and claims $84 million in funding. Research partners include the University of Washington, Fred Hutch and Novo Nordisk among others.