The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center cuts a high profile these days. Created by the state Legislature in June 2006 to foster research and economic development in the Commonwealth’s substantial life science sector, the center has money to burn, thanks to the Life Sciences Act the Bay State passed last year.
Led Susan Windham-Bannister, a former healthcare policy wonk turned business strategy consultant turned state life sciences czar, the quasi-public agency is charged with dispensing a mix of public and private funding to cultivate the state’s medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors.