Lexington, Mass.-based BioScale has opened a new 30,000-square-foot laboratory and manufacturing facility in Lexington, Mass.

The new facility will house R&D, applications development and instrument manufacturing of novel analytical tools enabling advancements in protein research being conducted by pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide. The company also will manufacture its consumable MEMS sensor cartridges and reagents used in the analysis of proteins at the Lexington site.

The company currently employs nearly 50 professional, scientific and manufacturing employees and consultants. As it executes its commercialization plans in 2011, BioScale expects to see its work force grow through 2012 with many positions in supply chain, sales, service, marketing, manufacturing and operations.

The company was co-founded by CEO Mark Lundstrom and three MIT professors. Its proprietary technology is an integration of aerospace science developed at MIT and licensed technology from Charles Stark Draper Labs.