Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Mass. Life Sciences Center hires Luis Barros

By Mass High Tech Staff

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has added Luis Barros as the organization’s first senior vice president of industry relations.

Barros, a graduate of MIT Sloan School of Management, has previous experience at Lilly Ventures, the venture capital side of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.
Barros had been working as executive vice president of medical informatics company I.C. Sciences before he left to work as a health-care consultant.

The news was noted at the recent board meeting of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center is the state agency focused on directing investment in the life sciences sector of the commonwealth, and specifically on guiding the $1 billion life sciences bill signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in June.

In July, the agency added new members to its board of directors and awarded $6.6 million in grants. Among the new board members: Joshua Boger, CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTX), of Cambridge; Leslie Kirwan, secretary of administration and finance in the Patrick administration, who is co-chairing the Life Sciences Center board; Lydia Villa-Komaroff, CEO of Boston life sciences startup Cytonome Inc.; and Peter Slavin, president of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The new board also recently approved $3.5 million in grants to be awarded to five Massachusetts universities to retain prominent, life sciences faculty as well as 11 research grants for Bay State institutions totaling $3.1 million.