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6 HE ALTH • Spring 2022 diagnosis, treatment, recovery and survivorship is committed to ensuring the delivery of the highest standard of patient-family care as they navigate through 55 Sayles Street, Southbridge (508) 764-2400 harringtonhospital.org/cancer The Cancer Center at UMass Memorial Health - Harrington Health Care Br iefs Continued from Page 5 Home care services will be available at 58 communities throughout Central Massachusetts. MBI, UMass Chan granted $5M for life sciences infrastructure Two Worcester institutions received more than $5 million in grants from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, an economic development investment agency dedicated to life sciences, which on Thursday announced $28.3 million in capital funding to institutions across the state. The Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives incubator received $3 mil- lion for an expansion, and UMass Chan Medical School received $2 mil- lion for virus research. Kenneth Turner, president and CEO of Massachusetts Life Sciences broke the news during a Thursday morning Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Club event, where he said Central Massachusetts' life sciences sector was growing rapid- ly and making Worcester just as com- petitive as Boston and Cambridge. "We have a historical opportunity to spread the access and opportunity in the life sciences sector across the entire commonwealth," Turner said during his keynote speech at chamber event. MBI, a biotech incubator provider in Worcester, received $3 million in funding to go toward an expansion of MBI's ScaleUp Center. The center offers private laboratory suites up to 3,000 square feet with built-in offices to be used as incubator space for life science companies. UMass Chan received a grant of $2,017,168. The award will fund a project enabling nanoscale imaging of viruses of pandemic potential at the medical school, according to MLSC's press release. MLSC's Research Infrastructure program invests in high-demand infrastructure across the state to sup- port academic and industry life sci- ence. Some of the awardees provided matching funds, making the com- bined total more than $50 million. "For every taxpayer dollar that we invest in this state in the life sciences, the leverage outcome is somewhere around four-fold. I don't know about you, but I think that is some pretty goddamn good investment," Turner said. Amid student deaths, WPI names inaugural director of new wellness center Worcester Polytechnic Institute named Paula Fitzpatrick, an Assumption University dean, as its first-ever director of the new Center for Well-Being. The Center for Well-Being launched in early 2022, as the college was reeling from seven student deaths, at least three by suicide, in less than a year. The new WPI center takes a holistic approach to wellness, focusing on work-life balance for students. Fitzpatrick was previously the dean of Assumption University's D'Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Worcester, according to the press release from WPI. She is also a professor of psycholo- gy and a certified mindfulness medi- tation teacher. Fitzpatrick began her role at WPI on Feb. 28. She will work with a team to implement recommendations developed by the Mental Health and Well-Being Task Force, which con- vened last fall to assess mental health needs at the college in the wake of the fourth student death. "I am impressed with and excited by the bold step WPI is taking in cre- ating this center," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "It holds great promise for weaving wellness into the educational and work experience across all of WPI." In January, WPI notified its com- munity of two more student deaths, one by suicide. The college is also undergoing lead- ership change, as its president of eight years, Laurie Leshin, announced in January she would leave for a position at NASA. The WPI board of trustees is searching for a replacement while Provost Winston Oluwole Soboyejo will fill as interim president after Leshin's departure. Paula Fitzpatrick named director of WPI's new Center for Well-Being

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