Gov. Sam Brownback will join Kansas University, city and business leaders for a groundbreaking ceremony to note the $10 million expansion of the Bioscience & Technology Business Center, which is already the largest business incubator network in the Midwest.

The event, which is open to the public, starts at 10 a.m. Friday at the existing BTBC facility, located at 2029 Becker Drive on KU’s west campus. Guests to the event should park in Park & Ride Lot 302, south of the BTBC.

Brownback will speak at the groundbreaking, along with KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, Lawrence Mayor Mike Dever and Doug Cleverly, chief executive officer of Argenta, a global animal health leader that operates a laboratory in the BTBC Main Facility. LaVerne Epp, executive chairman of the BTBC, will emcee the program.

The 21,400-square-foot existing facility, completed in 2010, reached its capacity a year ago with its ninth tenant company. The 30,000-square-foot expansion of new office and lab space will start taking in new tenants in the summer of 2014.

Its $10 million price tag is funded by the KU Endowment Association, $5.5 million; the KU Center for Research, $2 million; City of Lawrence and Douglas County, $1 million each; and BTBC, $500,000.