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Critical to that expansion is Third Rock Ventures, a life science venture capital firm in Boston responsible for creating and funding numerous biotech startups in the city, many of which host interns from the program. “It’s an initiative to bring opportunities to folks that otherwise wouldn’t have access to those opportunities,” said Reid Huber, a partner in the firm, which has become a founding partner of the intern program.
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Just 15 percent of the biopharma workforce in Massachusetts identify as people of color, despite twice as many residents in the state identifying as such, according to the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council’s most recent report on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The disparity increases for executive and board-level positions.
The dearth of diversity was weighing on MacDonald a few years ago. As she dug into the problem, she realized that many bright young people in the state simply didn’t know what jobs in the biotech sector entailed, much less how to get their foot in the door. The problem is magnified for students of state and community colleges that don’t have robust alumni networks or easy access to meeting biotech employees in Cambridge.
“What we’re trying to do is fill that gap in social capital,” MacDonald said. About half of the interns work in labs or in research roles, and the other half are spread across myriad other functions that make biotech companies tick, including finance, human resources, legal, marketing, operations, and social media. About one-third of participants are Black, and one-third are Latino.
Main Street in Kendall Square on June 8, 2022.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
Not long ago, Alemayehu hadn’t even considered a job in biotech, despite the fact that she was studying biology at UMass Boston. Her father was pushing for her to become a doctor, a parental pressure that was common among friends in her major, she said. But the profession didn’t appeal to her, and she didn’t want to go to graduate school. “I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.
Alemayehu started looking for internships, but discovered that many were unpaid, so she couldn’t afford to accept one. Her advisor recommended that Alemayehu submit her resume to the pool at Project Onramp, which serves as a middleman between universities and biotech companies, which are asked to set aside a paid internship or two for applicants from the program.
Alemayehu got an internship at Cambridge-based Inari in 2021, where her mentors set up weekly rotations for her to work with different teams at the company to see what she liked best. That experience helped her land a job at Vedanta, where she helps researchers manage chemicals, samples, and supplies in the lab, as well as properly dispose of biological waste.
MacDonald said that Project Onramp’s expansion, which will require more staff to help connect interns to biotech companies, will require $6 million over the next five years, a target she hasn’t hit yet. Third Rock is donating an undisclosed sum to the program over three years. And an anonymous Boston-based philanthropist will double that donation and others.
This summer, Third Rock will open its own doors to a small number of interns. Huber hopes other biotech-focused venture capital firms will also step up to participate in, and fund, the program. “We have a responsibility to cultivate our industry to make sure the economic opportunity is there for everyone, and not just those who happened to get their PhD at particular institutions,” Huber said.
MacDonald said she is just starting to build up data on how many interns get jobs at life science companies after they graduate. She doesn’t expect that everyone will stay in biotech, but for Alemayehu, it helped open a door for a vast array of jobs she previously hadn’t considered.
“I realized I had options,” Alemayehu said. “If it wasn’t for that program, I don’t know if I’d be able to have the connections that I have today.”
Ryan Cross can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RLCscienceboss.
This content was originally published here.
