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Nine-Day Cambridge Science Festival Showcases City’s Tech Prowess

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The Cambridge Innovation Center and quite a few companies will be holding open houses this Thursday in Kendall Square, Cambridge–as part of the nine-day Cambridge Science Festival.

Billed on its Web site as “the first of its kind in the nation,”  the annual Festival opened on Saturday, April 24, to showcase  Cambridge as an internationally recognized leader in science, technology, engineering and math.  A multifaceted, multicultural event held every spring, the Cambridge Science Festival makes science accessible, interactive and fun.

A myriad of events–ranging from talks and panel discussions to demonstrations, luncheons, museum exhibits, elementary school science fairs  and company open houses–are listed at the  Festival’s Schedule of Events.

I expect to be at the Cambridge Innovotion Center open house at 1 Broadway  on Thursday evening–as will my client, InVivo Therapeutics, and   Vitality, Seeding Labs, Acorn Product Development,   HubSpot and other companies.   The Venture Cafe, on the 11th floor,  will be open to the public  from 6-9 pm.

Also on Thursday evening, Microsoft’s NERD Center, Google, VMware, and the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab will hold open houses.  
The Festival is sponsored  by MIT, Pfizer, and the city of Cambridge.
–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is published by the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA. We also publish HarrisCom Blog and Ithaca Diaries Blog. 


Mass. Life Sciences Center sees 8-fold return in year 1

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Over lunch at the Cambridge Innovation Center on Wednesday,   Mass Life Sciences Center (MLSC) President and CEO Susan Bannister told a gathering of some 100 life science afficionados that the first year of Gov. Deval Patrick’s Life Science Initiatiative has been a success. 

The MLSC, charged with distributing some $1B over a ten year period,  invested  $48.5 M in public dollars this year–its first full year of operation.  The funds, in turn, have attracted nearly $359M in matching investments from companies, foundations, government, institutes and other private investors–an eight-fold return.  

“There’s still capital out there and life science is a good place to put your money,” Bannister said.  “By putting state money into the pot, we have ‘de-risked’ investment that the state would have had to find elsewhere”.

 The funded projects–in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and bioinformatics–could create some 950 jobs in the near term, Bannister said.

By adding employment opportunities,  Massachusetts’  investments and incentives could help to absorb some of the job losses expected in other sectors, according to Bannister.

Frank Reynolds, CEO of InVivo Therapeutics, which is developing stem cell/ polymer technology aimed at halting the effects of traumatic spinal cord injury, said that receiving a $500 thousand loan just as  venture capital possibilities tanked this fall made a tremendous difference in his company’s ability to proceed. ”  It’s a great program,” Reynolds said. (Disclosure:   I work with InVivo).

Bannister cautioned  that in the current economic downturn, tax revenues are “iffy” and it’s not yet clear how much money will be available for the Initiative in 2010.

For more details, please visit  Harriscomblog.wordpress.com.

—Anita Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA.