Building Community
Collaboration, Creativity, and Connections
In 2025, LabCentral continued to serve as a convener of people, ideas, and experiences that move progress forward. Across hundreds of events, educational programs, and cultural moments, our spaces became places where discovery met dialogue—and where scientists, founders, partners, artists, community members, and advocates came together to share perspectives, spark ideas, and build lasting connections. From high-impact scientific showcases to hands-on workforce training and community-driven cultural programming, the year reflected a growing ecosystem shaped by curiosity, care, and collaboration.
In 2025, Educational Programming continued to expand LabCentral’s workforce development mission through hands-on training, workshops, and applied learning experiences aligned with real-world biotech careers. Across programs, over 1,000 individuals engaged with the ecosystem as the team strengthened infrastructure, deepened institutional partnerships, and refined a model designed to support both access and long-term sustainability.
Educational Programming Pathways
Building On-Ramps into Biotech
Together, What the Heck is Biotech?®, Biotech Ready, and the Learning Lab now form a connected pathway—from early exposure to hands-on training and real lab experience—helping learners move from curiosity to career within the life sciences.
How the Model Evolved in 2025
From Programs to a Connected Pathway
Educational Programming evolved from individual offerings into a coordinated learning pathway. What the Heck is Biotech?® now serves as the front door, introducing partners who can continue into Biotech Ready training. Together with the Learning Lab, the programs create a progression from early exposure to hands-on lab experience.
Built for Partnership and Access
Biotech Ready increasingly operates through semester-based partnerships with universities and workforce development organizations. By aligning with academic calendars, students can participate as part of their coursework rather than extracurricular activities, expanding access earlier in their academic journeys.
Designed for Sustainability
In 2025, the team strengthened the program’s long-term sustainability through a mix of grant support and strategic partnerships. This approach helps broadening access for local institutions while welcoming international participants into the Learning Lab community.
Emmanuel College Student
2025 Biotech Ready Cohort
From Learning to Livelihood
Educational Programming also convened cross-sector participants through signature gatherings, including The More You Know Forum, which brought together 64 participants from higher education, funding organizations, alumni, and sponsors to address the education-to-employment gap. During MA STEM Week, programming delivered with LabXchange engaged more than 40 stakeholders onsite, reinforcing LabCentral’s role as a hub for workforce collaboration. LabCentral also partnered with the Life Sciences Career Alliance, hosting their first employer–training provider gathering, “Skills-First Hiring for a Stronger Life Sciences Workforce,” focused on practical approaches to skills-first hiring
Biotech Ready is a micro-credentialing program that prepares college students for careers in the life sciences through competency-based training and evaluation. Launched in September 2025 as a reimagining of LabCentral's Ignite programming, Biotech Ready served 37 students across three cohorts in partnership with three higher-education institutions.
For LabCentral residents, Biotech Ready provides access to trained talent familiar with LabCentral equipment and workflows—often through reimbursed or cost-free placements that provide paid internship opportunities for participants—supporting research velocity and reducing hiring friction. For the broader life sciences community, the program strengthens a more prepared early-career talent pipeline aligned with real-world lab environments.
What the Heck is Biotech?®
What the Heck is Biotech?® (WTHIB) is a community‑delivered workshop series that makes biotechnology more accessible, introducing students and adults to career pathways across education and experience levels.
In 2025, the program expanded to serve international audiences through collaborations with CIC, Venture Café, the Japan America Academic Center, and Tour Plus, and partnered with Binghamton University to deliver its first fully virtual session. WTHIB partnered with the Boston Private Industry Council, amplifying its reach.
The Learning Lab
A Platform for Partnership
In 2025, the 1,270-square-foot Learning Lab supported 145 individuals. Sponsored by New England Biolabs, it serves as a home base for LabCentral’s educational programs and a flexible resource for aligned partners. The space enables hands-on training, co-created programming, and shared use by institutions advancing workforce development goals.
Refitted through an MLSC Capital Grant, the Learning Lab expanded its capabilities in bioprocessing and analytical techniques—including bioreactor operations, LC/MS, qPCR, and Western blotting—supporting deeper, industry-aligned training.
Participating organizations in 2025 include:
In 2025, LabCentral hosted approximately 500 events and sponsor drop-ins across our locations. These gatherings brought founders, scientists, partners, and community members into shared rooms—creating space for conversation, learning, and early collaboration at moments that mattered most.
Of these, 384 gatherings were sponsored, reflecting the important role partners play as active participants in shaping dialogue, discovery, and progress within the LabCentral community.
Throughout 2025, LabCentral hosted a series of social impact events centered on lived experience, cultural expression, and health equity—creating space for conversation, reflection, and collective learning beyond the lab. Together, these gatherings reflected LabCentral’s belief that scientific advancement is inseparable from the health, connection, and strength of the communities it serves.
- Pride in Leadership–Authenticity as a Superpower: spotlighted LGBTQ+ leaders and the role of authenticity in leadership
- Juneteenth–Freedom & Form: celebrated liberation and artistic expression through the work of Black and Brown artists
- Beyond the Diagnosis: Created space for dialogue around pediatric cancer and family support
- The Annual Cultural Celebration: Featured food, music, and traditions from 22 countries hosted by residents, sponsors, and team members
- Mammogram Awareness Day: Uzo Erlingsson and Olivia Achtmeyer of Runway for Recovery shared their different, but personal, breast cancer stories and practical tips for early detection.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, LabCentral hosted a day of action‑oriented dialogue spotlighting women leaders across the life sciences. Through keynote talks and panel discussions, speakers explored innovation in service of patients, global ecosystem‑building, and advancing opportunities in women’s health.
The event also included a donation drive in partnership with Rosie’s Place, reinforcing the belief that purposeful conversation is strongest when paired with tangible community impact.
From HeLa to Health Equity
During Black History Month, From HeLa to Health Equity honored the foundational contributions of Black and Brown communities to medicine—spotlighting the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, taken without her consent in 1951, became the first immortal human cell line and remain essential to breakthroughs in vaccines, cancer research, and countless medical advancements. The event also confronted the persistent disparities that shape health outcomes today. Through voices of patients, experts, and advocates, it explored how history, access, and representation intersect—and how community-driven solutions can help close enduring gaps in care and opportunity.
Gallery 1832
Gallery 1832 is embedded within LabCentral’s active scientific spaces, transforming hallways and shared areas into rotating exhibitions that invite pause, reflection, and conversation. Through artist collaborations, public receptions, and curated installations, the gallery creates unexpected intersections between art, science, and community.
Notable Exhibitions
What Happens After
Masha Keryan explored displacement, memory, and cultural resilience through oil paintings inspired by Armenian medieval illuminations.
The City You Love
In partnership with the Cambridge Community Foundation, this exhibit captured moments of joy, isolation, and solidarity across Cambridge, spotlighting everyday changemakers and the importance of social cohesion.
The Art of Being Female
Christina Van Dyke examined the contradictions, vulnerability, and strength of womanhood through layered abstraction and portraiture.
Raíces: Rooted in Identity
Michelle Falcón Fontánez wove photography and storytelling to explore Puerto Rican identity, ancestry, and resilience, honoring the often‑unseen labor of women as cultural stewards.
Bookmark our events page to stay up to date on upcoming educational programs, social impact initiatives, and art exhibitions across the community.