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14 Central MA Life Sciences Report Gary Kaufman, co-founder of the ABI- LAB, is expanding the facility into its third building. P H O T O / E D D C O T E Kaufman sees Central Massachusetts as ripe for other investment. There's room to grow in Natick and the surrounding communities, if they have the proper sewer hookups and other utility setups necessary. It could become the next digital highway, which is what Route 128 was known as in the 1970s when technology companies began to open along the corridor as space in Boston was expensive and the suburbs proved promising for growth. Since then, people have continued to move westward. No longer is the concentration of educated and talented people living inside 128. They're in the surrounding communities, and the push west since COVID began in 2020 has only increased this talent pool. Jon Weaver, the president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a life sciences incubator in Worcester, sees Central Massachusetts as ripe for investment in life sciences because the talent is here and the space is available for a more reasonable price compared to Boston and Cambridge. He sees what happened in Kendall Square as a blueprint for what can happen in other communities. It wasn't that long ago Kendall Square in Cambridge was an afterthought. The area was a forgotten manufacturing zone, blighted from years of neglect. There were textile, candy, and leather factories, all with diminishing returns as manufacturing began to leave the area and the country after World War II. Today, the neighborhood is the epicenter of medical and life sciences research, but that booming business and source of innovation and jobs almost didn't happen. In 1976, Harvard University wanted to build a new lab in the area to study gene splicing, but the then Cambridge Mayor Alfred Vellucci didn't want it. He was scared of what this new research and technology could do. Harvard wanted to conduct recombinant DNA experiments in its proposed lab, and Vellucci didn't want that happening in his city. A battle ensued at city hall. Vellucci tried to impose a two-year moratorium on gene splicing in Cambridge, and the city council created a board of nine Cambridge citizens and passed a three- month moratorium on the work. The board had the task of exploring if the work should be allowed and what kind of safety measures should be put into place. Eventually, the board came up with a framework for DNA-related research. At the same time, genetic research became a hot button issue in other cities and towns. There was a feeling these experiments could run awry; they weren't safe and could create some sort of science-fiction monster. Somerville held public hearings in 1981 where concerns were lobbied against bringing this type of research to its neighborhoods. Cambridge, in comparison, began to welcome the Jon Weaver, CEO and president of Mass. Biomedical Initiatives Continued from page 13 Continued on page 16