Boston Lab Liquidated

Genesys Research Institute, Inc., a non-commercial research organization that filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015, is responsible for shuttering the Center of Cancer Systems Biology on the campus of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton. Like many defunct labs, their biological samples have been destroyed and their inventory, including lab equipment, liquidated.  An article published early last month in The Boston Globe outlines the battle of Lynn Hlatky, a scientist who studied the development of cancer, not to necessarily keep the doors of the lab open, but to preserve the work she had completed so that her work could continue at another lab. This includes “thousands of little glass tubes of cells and proteins, pieces of human tumor tissue, and other biological samples.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Hlatky, who has worked in cancer research for nearly 30 years. “My focus has been completing the work that we were funded to do – saving the science, completing the science.”  While Hlatky’s research may be gone, some good may still come from the liquidation. The Lab World group was able to purchase a majority of the equipment that was auctioned off. Once assessed and rehabbed if need be, the equipment will be available for purchase at prices much smaller and start-up labs can afford.