Boston health leaders band together for new center for making cell therapies

Citing bottlenecks in manufacturing, researchers from several Boston-area institutions just announced plans for a new center dedicated to growing vast quantities of biological materials. The yet-to-be-named facility is a joint venture from 12 Boston hospitals and facilities, including Harvard University, some of its affiliate hospitals, and GE Healthcare Life Sciences. The $50 million facility will be able to produce human cells for the treatment of disease, including genetically engineered ones and those from stem cells. The center will also be able to produce materials for gene therapies. About half of the 25,000-square-foot facility, which could be up and running as early as 2021, will be used as lab spaces for academic researchers to experiment with better ways of manufacturing the materials.