Mello Picks Up An Ocean View In R.I. | Nobel winner says he'll keep a local zip code
We try to keep abreast of all things biotech here at WBJ as we try to run down all the tips we get, big and small, one way or the other.
So when a little bee buzzed to us that Dr. Craig Mello, winner of a 2006 Nobel Prize, had bought a house in Barrington, Rhode Island, it was natural to wonder if we were losing our larger than life molecular medicine man.
Ocean Spray
But all is well. It seems the Mello family has bought a second home in Rhode Island where they can be near the ocean, something Dr. Mello has loved since he was a child playing in Rhode Island at his grandparents’ home. As a college student at Brown University in Providence, he used to get away to his grandparents home in Warren and go sailing. It’s an activity that has given him a lot of pleasure over the years and something he still does as much as possible.
Mello did sell his Horseneck Road home in Shrewsbury on July 23. But in an e-mail to this writer, he said the family is also in the process of buying a new home in town. So, he’ll be keeping a Central Massachusetts zip code.
Whew!
The state’s Life Sciences bill is bringing $90 million to the UMass Medical School to establish an advanced therapeutics cluster, including a center for RNAi therapeutics, as well as centers for stem cell biology and gene therapies. There is also $8.2 million for a stem cell registry and bank at UMass Worcester and another $12 million in matching grant funds for research.
If our RNAi rainmaker weren’t here on hand for all this as it unfolds, it would seem strange. And who knows what else he will work on in the future, or what the additional faculty and students who may be attracted by what these new centers will discover.
His work with RNAi has helped bring attention and money to Worcester as it becomes a biotechnology and biomedical center.
And he seems to like it here. When he celebrated receiving one of the most prestigious awards in the world, he chose to have the ceremony in Worcester. His one big request was to have the University of Massachusetts’ marching band perform during the ceremony, which it did.
He was asked shortly after winning the Nobel Prize, if he would stay in Worcester and he answered without hesitation “definitely.”
Budget Buster
Of course not all has been smooth sailing for Mello when it comes to the Town of Shrewsbury’s spending habits. Just as many other communities have been hit hard with declining state aid and a sluggish economy, so has Shrewsbury. Dr. Mello has spoken in favor of a Proposition 2 ½ override to keep all town services operating at the same level, including the school system. Mello has also donated $30,000 of his Nobel Prize money to the Shrewsbury Schools and encouraged others to donate as well.
Last fall Dr. Mello enrolled his oldest daughter at Worcester Academy after she requested to leave Shrewsbury High School because she was not being academically challenged.
But all politics aside, it will be interesting and exciting to watch the results as Dr. Mello, his group of hard-working scientists and UMass Medical School become a hub of stem cell and genetic research.
Now, WBJ has to get back to the buzzing of other bees.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments