Abbott Biosresearch Center
Charles River Laboratories
Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories
New England Regional Translational
Research Network
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories (MBL)

The Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories (MBL) of the University of Massachusetts Medical School is a facility that has the distinction of being the only non-profit FDA licensed manufacturer of vaccines and biologics in the United States. Under the leadership of Donna Ambrosino, MBL has two campuses. Most of MBL’s functions are moving to a brand new 80,000 sq ft manufacturing facility on a 15.3-acre campus in Mattapan. The new facility represents an expansion of the MBL’s existing buildings in Jamaica Plain and includes state-of-the-art aseptic filling capacity and humanized monoclonal antibody manufacturing, both in short supply in the United States. This new and expanded facility will allow MBL to continue filling its own products as well as offer this unique resource to private and public entities.

Researcher at MBL Currently MBL produces 20% of the tetanus vaccine used in the US as well as licensed immune globulin products. MBL’s mission is to develop and manufacture biologic products of public health importance that target unmet medical needs and emerging public health threats. This includes products expected to have small markets due to limited incidence of disease (orphan products), uncertain markets as new infectious diseases emerge, or products for poor nations to address unique needs. New product development at MBL focuses on the development of “humanized” monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

During the last few years, MBL has expanded its monoclonal antibody development and manufacturing expertise through collaboration with public and private partners. MBL has developed eight MAbs since 1998 and successfully established a product discovery group to bring MAbs from concept to clinical trials. The first four MAbs were developed (but not discovered) at MBL in collaboration with NIH or a private partner. The next four MAbs were examples of MBL’s ability of taking a product from an idea to patients. These include the rapid and timely development of two MAbs to treat hospital-acquired C. difficile diarrhea, a MAb for post-exposure rabies treatment and a MAb to control SARS.

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Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

UMass Medical School (UMMS) is collaborating with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) to accelerate the integration of research findings into clinical practice. This evolving partnership is multi-faceted, encompassing the training of new biomedical researchers as well as facilitating the establishment of collaborative clinical and translational research teams.

UMMS/WPI Collaborative Pilot Program
UMMS and WPI announced a funding opportunity in June 2007 for a new research endeavor between the institutions. Each institution contributed $100,000 to the Collaborative Pilot Project (CPP) initiative, which seeks to establish partnerships between our faculty and institutions that
promote pioneering scientific discovery.
develop highly innovative technologies, with a long-term view toward.
fosterand accelerate the translation of research from the bench to the bedside.
BS/PhD Program in Biomedical Engineering
UMMS, through the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) is also developing a joint BS/PhD Program in Bioinformatics with WPI. The goal is to provide an accelerated six-year curriculum wherein the student receives the expertise needed to become a highly skilled clinical and translational research team member.
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