The Roche Genentech Innovation Center Boston has launched at Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus in Allston, strengthening a long-standing partnership in areas such as disease biology, engineering, and artificial intelligence/machine learning.
The Roche Genentech Innovation Center Boston will serve as Roche’s Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolism (CVRM) hub, establishing a significant end-to-end R&D presence in CVRM. It will also support some of Roche’s and Genentech’s efforts in AI and data science to accelerate drug discovery and development.
The laboratories will be equipped for advanced research, and over time the center could employ up to 500 people. Manu Chakravarthy, SVP and Global Head of CVRM Product Development, will be the center’s site head.
This new investment will serve to strengthen an existing relationship between Harvard and Roche that has been in place for well over a decade. These drug discovery efforts have included work to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria as well as the use of AI in cancer research to identify targeted approaches to treatment and to analyse the effectiveness of new cancer drugs in clinical trials.
Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said: “Our new innovation center builds upon our long-standing collaboration with Harvard and enables us to leverage the exceptional talent in the Boston area. By investing in a new Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolism center of excellence, along with data science and AI capabilities at this strategic location, we aim to accelerate Roche’s and Genentech’s research efforts and leverage the Boston innovation ecosystem. Roche has a significant presence in the US and this new center is one of a number of research and manufacturing investments that Roche is making in the US through Genentech and Diagnostics.”
