IT WAS one year ago today that Governor Patrick joined with legislative, academic, and industry leaders to sign into law the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative. The initiative, a 10-year, $1 billion package of investments and incentives, was designed to strengthen Massachusetts' role as a global leader in the life sciences, and bolster the life sciences as an economic engine for the Commonwealth.
The goals at the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center are to create jobs, drive innovation, and support good science that holds potential to improve the human condition. Over the past year, the center used a strategy of seeding, accelerating, and matching to achieve these goals. It has invested $46 million in state funding, leveraged an additional $357 million in private and federal investment, and is helping to create a projected 950 jobs in companies, research institutions, and in the building trades. This means that for every dollar of taxpayer money invested, it has returned $8 in additional economic activity, generating new state revenue and nearly 1,000 jobs in the process.
A substantial portion of its portfolio represents investments in research with potential for commercialization into products, cures, and therapies. Over the past year, the center committed $10.6 million in matching grants to academic institutions. Its investments have been matched dollar-for-dollar by those institutions or by company sponsors, creating a total investment of more than $21 million. Some of its grants support the work of young scientists at academic institutions across the state, some help institutions to recruit top-notch faculty, and others support collaborative research projects between academic institutions and industry.
The center has awarded $3.4 million in accelerator loans to seven early-stage life sciences companies. The accelerator program seeks to support and "de-risk" early-stage companies by providing working capital. The center had 88 companies apply for the first round of accelerator grants, demonstrating the demand for this sort of program.
The seven companies that were selected cover the full range of life sciences in Massachusetts, from biotech to pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics. These companies are engaged in bringing innovation to the public - and were funded by the center because they are turning good science into good business opportunities.
One such company is InVivo Therapeutics in Cambridge, leading the way in developing therapies for traumatic spinal cord injury. Another is Wolfe Laboratories in Watertown, which provides clinical research services for biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
The Life Sciences Initiative is also attracting new companies and jobs to Massachusetts. RainDance Technologies moved last year from Connecticut to Lexington, citing the Life Sciences Initiative as a major reason why. They brought 54 jobs with them, and are now adding more. The center funded a collaborative research project between RainDance Technologies and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied sciences for the development of a functional fluorescent-activated cell sorter.
The center also has funded important capital projects that are helping towns and cities become "life sciences ready." These projects, totaling $15 million to date, have included the renovation of the Loeb Laboratory at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, the creation of the New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory in Grafton at Tufts Veterinary School, and improvements to the wastewater system at the Framingham Technology Park. The latter project is enabling
And, of course, you can't sustain an innovation economy without a world-class, creative workforce. The center recently announced the Life Sciences Internship Challenge, through which it will be funding between 100 and 200 interns this summer.
A study was released recently from the California-based Milken Institute, and it contained good news - the Boston area remains the number one region in the country for life sciences. But the report offered some sobering news as well - that other regions are catching up. We work in a competitive environment, where other states and nations are making aggressive investments to build life sciences clusters. If we want to remain the leaders, we need to stay the course, with full implementation of the Life Sciences Initiative, including funding and an ongoing state commitment.
Susan Windham-Bannister is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. 
