A partnership with Dana Farber for cancer test development is planned, and several firms have set up in the VDC.
In the increasingly favorable climate for academia, UMass Boston opened a 18,000 sq. ft. Venture Development Center (VDC) to help it focus on industry partnerships and developing contracts. One of the proposed projects is a joint venture to be formed this year with Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center to launch a facility for personalized cancer care.
The cancer center, which the university says will help develop diagnostics tests to enable community hospitals to choose the best treatment for cancer patients, is part of a bid by UMass Boston to continue expanding research activities that helped to generate $558 million for the local economy in 2008.
“Not only will it attract start-up biotech, life sciences, and other research initiatives to right here in Dorchester, it will also generate spin-off economic development benefits for Boston and the surrounding neighborhoods,” says Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Other industry partners already planning on locating some of their work in the VDC include GeoMed Analytical, which is working to improve analysis techniques for measuring metal levels in biological samples, as well as several software companies.
