Health

6 HE ALTH • Summer 2021 Waters Corp. founder dies at age 95 James Waters, a Framingham resident and the founder of the $19-billion Milford laboratory equipment manufacturer Waters Corp., died on Monday at age 95, the company announced on Wednesday. Waters was born in Nebraska, but moved at a young age to Framingham, where he would launch Waters Associates in 1958 in the basement of the Framingham Police Department. He and his five employees planned to build scientific instruments. The firm's big breakthrough came in 1965 when the company licensed a refractometer from Michigan multinational firm Dow Chemical for analyzing plastics, and the product Waters built from that led to a spike in sales. "While we mourn his passing, those who knew and worked alongside him remember Jim Waters as a brilliant and spirited scientist and businessman, who propelled the discipline of separations science with his revolutionary work in liquid chromatography," said Udit Batra, CEO and president of Waters Corp., in the press release. "Alongside his loving family, our company and industry celebrate the legacy of this special man who always sought to 'deliver benefit' and whose work continues to catalyze innovation across the life, materials and food sciences, and today contributes to the fast- evolving science on COVID-19 vaccine development and disease research." Waters' biggest triumph for the company came in 1972, when he solved a problem for Harvard professor Robert Woodward, who was working on the synthesis of vitamin B12 and who had already won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965 for being the first to synthesize chlorophyll. At Woodward's request, Waters accompanied a team to Woodward's lab with a liquid chromatograph and solved the problem in the span of a few weeks. Water's tenure as president of Waters Associates ended in 1979, when Burlington life sciences firm Millipore Corp. purchased the company. The company remained a division of Millipore, until Millipore split it off in a management-led buyout. Waters became its own public firm in 1995. Framingham company's at-home COVID-19 test approved for children Framingham-based Clinical Enterprise, Inc., doing business as empowerDX, announced in June its James Waters, founder of Waters Corp. Health Care Br iefs environment of continuous improvement. That commitment is why we are partnering with Harvard Pilgrim and Ariadne Labs. Our care teams are excited about this opportunity." Reliant opens new cancer center, as it moves out of Saint Vincent Reliant Medical Group of Worcester in May opened its new Oncology & Infusion Center in Worcester, moving the service out of the Saint Vincent Wellness & Cancer center in downtown Worcester. The center, at Reliant's f lagship office at 5 Neponset St. in Worcester, will house both the oncology and hematology departments. With the opening, Reliant will no longer refer patients to the Saint Vincent center. "Co-locating our cancer care and hematology departments with other Reliant medical services at the Neponset Street office will help us to provide our patients with a more seamless care experience," said Dr. Brad Switzer, from Reliant Medical Group, in a press release. "Providing chemotherapy within Reliant allows us to round out our internal complement of cancer care services." Worcester retirement community names new executive director Rogerson Communities in May announced Michael Quirk will be the new executive director of its Briarwood Continuing Care Retirement Community in Worcester, beginning June 1. A graduate of Boston College, Quirk brings more than 12 years of experience to this new position, according to a release from Rogerson Communities, a Boston nonprofit with 25 facilities around Massachusetts. He was most recently executive director of Overlook Communities, Inc. in Charlton with oversight of 220 independent living apartments and cottages. Quirk is taking over as Briarwood leader from Paul Bowler, whose title was CEO and was in the role since 2013. The Rogerson announcement didn't specify Bowler's next role. Quirk is licensed as a nursing home administrator in Massachusetts and a certified dementia practitioner. Quirk will report directly to Walter Ramos, Rogerson's president and CEO. Seven Hills partners with Lyft to provide free COVID vaccination rides The Worcester nonprofit Seven Hills Foundation has partnered with the rideshare company Lyft and the City of Worcester to provide Worcester residents free and discounted rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites. As a part of Lyft's Universal Vaccine Access campaign rolling out throughout the country, low-income families receive ride credits through the Worcester Family Resource Center at YOU, Inc. The center, an affiliate of Seven Hills Foundation, provides workshops, programs, and referral services for the local community. "Access to reliable transportation represents a major barrier to care for millions of Americans across the country, especially for vulnerable communities," said Brendan Joyce, the community engagement manager for Lyft in Massachusetts. In addition to this new partnership, Lyft and the Worcester Family Resource Center have collaborated since June to provide the LyftUp program, which provides area residents ride credits to go to grocery stores. The two programs have facilitated transportation for more than 1,150 to get food or COVID-19 vaccinations. Families needing transportation access to vaccination sites or grocery stores can call 508-796-1411 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Worcester Family Resource Center. Two dentists buy Leominster shopping plaza for $5.8M Two Central Massachusetts dentists have purchased four buildings at the Leominster Commerce Center, located at 463-477 Lancaster St. for $5.8 million in a sale closed May 12, according to NAI Glickman Kovago & Jacobs, which brokered the deal. The buildings total 111,588 square feet and sit on 11.66 acres. The buildings were sold by 463-477 Lancaster St., LLC, which is registered to Richard Gass, a real estate and corporate attorney in Boston, according to filings with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. They were purchased by Leominster Warehouses Investment, LLC, which is managed by Edmond Massabni, who is a dentist in Milford, and Houssam Alkhoury, a Worcester orthodontist. Seven Hills receives $200K for child care training Family Services of Central Massachusetts, which is part of the Worcester nonprofit Seven Hills Foundation, received $200,000 from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to run a children development apprenticeship program. The funding will help FSCM train entry-level workers in child development and classroom management, including those workers with English as a second language; offer an apprenticeship certificate, including national and state credentials; help trainees move onto higher education at local community colleges; and improve retention of child care providers, including better wages. This new initiative is expected to run until June 2022, with the option to continue it to 2023. FSCM stressed the importance of child care workers, particularly how the coronavirus pandemic exposed the need to provide child care services for young families with workers who cannot do their jobs remotely. Hologic commits $20M to healthcare equality Marlborough medical device manufacturer Hologic has announced a $20-million commitment to Project Health Equality, a new initiative aimed at addressing health inequities for Black and Hispanic women. The program seeks to address structural and cultural barriers preventing Black and Hispanic women in the U.S. from receiving the same quality health care as white women. It will focus initially on how health care is experienced by thousands of Black and Hispanic women in regions across the United States and then leverage partners to make sustainable improvements in those communities. Hologic has made an initial $20-million investment in the project, with those funds being split between grants aimed at increasing access to care and divisional campaigns that support education and awareness initiatives, according to a Hologic spokesperson who was unable to delineate the amount further. The grants will fund three years of healthcare centers in regions across the country through Hologic's nonprofit partner RAD-AID in Maryland. Continued from Page 5 Michael Quirk, Briarwood Continuing Care

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