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Broad Clinical Labs is moving!

Author: Niall Lennon

If you were to ask the average science enthusiast on the street where the Broad Institute is located they would likely mumble something about Main St in Kendall Square. Indeed Broad’s Merkin and Stanley Buildings are the most visible outposts of our storied institution, however, they are not in fact the OG Broad buildings. That honor goes to the humble 320 Charles St.

Our History

This former beer and hotdog storage facility for Fenway Park concessions was the original space in which the Whitehead Institute’s Center for Genome Research leased laboratory space to handle the large-scale production activities for the Human Genome Project at the end of the last century. A few years later, in June 2003, it became the home of the newly formed Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, thanks to the prescient gift from Eli and Edythe Broad. Once the building on Main St in Kendall Square (then called 7 Cambridge Center) was completed in 2006, most of the institute leadership and administrative facilities moved there, as well as other founding labs of the Broad. What was left at 320 Charles was the sequencing group, which over time became the Genomics Platform of the Broad and also incubated the clinical laboratory that subsequently became Broad Clinical Labs.

The building at 320 Charles has been the center of some truly transformative scientific activities over the years, from the first Human Genome Project to sequencing over 600,000 genomes and over 1,000,000 exomes, and more, in service of discovery and translation across a wide swath of biomedicine (from infectious disease to cancer to rare and common germline disease). During the pandemic Broad Clinical Labs, at 320 Charles St, became one of the national epicenters for Covid-19 diagnostic testing, operating 24 hours a day for the duration and processing >37M patient samples.

This building has seen it all. It is also showing its age. When it rains, the roof has been known to spring a leak. The hallways are labyrinthine and the environmental controls struggle to keep up with our seasons. In 2022 we faced the decision on whether we should continue to pay increasing rents in one of the world’s most expensive life sciences neighborhoods, or start fresh a little further afield. We decided to build. We found a green field site a few miles outside the city and worked with a new landlord and team of architects to come up with a space that is appropriate for one of the world’s largest genome centers.

Meet 27 Blue Sky Drive. Our purpose built, 145,000 sq ft building, located on a new life sciences campus in Burlington, MA. The new home of Broad’s Genomics Platform and Broad Clinical Labs. Broad’s Kendall Square campus will stay of course, and is actually growing further.

Figure 1. Architects rendering of the new building.

 

Current status

The building is built. The furniture is being installed as I type. A dedicated team from our group and Broad’s facilities team has created a mind-boggling detailed move plan. Our collaborators and customers have been notified. The move starts in mid-September and will take about a month. During this phased move our intention is that clinical processing will continue uninterrupted.

We believe this new building represents an investment in the future, in our people (and their quality of workplace life), and in discovery and clinical genomics for all. Once we are settled, we would be happy to host anyone who wants to come for a tour.

 

Important note for this blog: Posts do not equal endorsements. Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, on behalf of the genomics group at Broad. We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of data/figures presented here but these are not peer-reviewed and errors may occur from time to time.

 

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Sean Hofherr

Chief of Clinical Strategy and Product Development, Broad Clinical Labs

Sean Hofherr is dual board certified by ABMGG in Clinical Biochemical Genetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics. Sean serves as the Chief of Clinical Strategy and Product Development at Broad Clinical Labs. In this role at BCL, Sean is able to leverage his extensive experience to guide the clinical vision and delivery across the organization. Sean most recently served as the Chief Operating Office at Fabric Genomics, which focuses on the use of AI and Bioinformatics for Clinical Interpretation of whole genome sequencing. Prior to Fabric, Sean was the Chief Scientific Officer and CLIA Director at the commercial reference laboratory, GeneDx.

Sean received his B.S. degree in Microbiology and Cell Sciences from the University of Florida before earning his Ph.D. in Molecular and Human Genetics from Baylor College of Medicine. Sean completed clinical fellowships in Clinical Biochemical Genetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics at the Mayo Clinic.

Danielle Perrin

Chief of Staff, Broad Clinical Labs

As Broad Clinical Labs’ Chief of Staff, Danielle Perrin advises and supports colleagues on the executive leadership team in BCL’s strategic planning and execution. She builds and leads new organizational functions and processes and leads critical projects, as well as driving effective information flow, decision making, and execution throughout the organization. An operations leader with a business, engineering, and biology background and 20+ years of experience in the genomics field, Perrin has a track record of driving operational excellence and building and scaling both physical and business processes. During her career at Broad, which started in 2003 at the tail end of the Human Genome Project, Perrin has led laboratory operations and R&D teams in Broad’s Genomics Platform, as well as fulfilling senior advisory and leadership roles in the Broad Institute’s COO and CFO offices.

Perrin received her B.S. in Biology and M.E. in Biotechnology Engineering from Tufts University and her M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Tim De Smet

Chief Commercial Officer, Broad Clinical Labs

As Chief Commercial Officer of Broad Clinical Labs, Tim De Smet leads BCL’s business development, alliance management, external project management, and customer support teams. A Broad Institute employee since 2008, De Smet has held leadership roles and managed teams of various sizes in Broad’s Genomics Platform and clinical lab, spanning laboratory operations, finance, and informatics, and has expertise in work design, financial modeling, and high scale laboratory and business operations.

De Smet received his B.S. in Biochemistry and M.B.A. from Northeastern University.

Jim Meldrim

Chief Technology Officer, Broad Clinical Labs

As Chief Technology Officer, Jim Meldrim sets the vision for Broad Clinical Labs’ informatics systems, including the hardware and software used for sample intake and tracking, data production, analysis, and delivery. Having held a variety of laboratory and informatics-focused leadership roles at Broad, spanning R&D and production operations, Meldrim has been a leader and innovator in the generation, management, and analysis of genomic data since 1999, beginning with sequencing data generation for the Human Genome Project.

Meldrim received his B.S. in Biology from Cornell University.

Sheila Dodge

Chief Operating Officer, Broad Clinical Labs

As Chief Operating Officer, Sheila Dodge leads Broad Clinical Labs’ process development and implementation activities, as well as lab operations, financial planning and operations, quality & compliance, and core business processes. A Six Sigma Black Belt with extensive experience in process development and high throughput genomics operations, Dodge is an expert in work design and in collaborating with a range of collaborators, scientists, engineers, and technology partners to rapidly integrate new technologies and operationalize innovations. A member of the Broad Institute since 2001, Dodge is an Institute Scientist and lectures at the MIT Sloan School of Management on operations, dynamic work design, and visual management techniques.

Dodge received her B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Boston University and her master’s degree in biology from Harvard University. She earned her M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Heidi Rehm, Ph.D., FACMG

Chief Medical Officer and Clinical Laboratory Director, Broad Clinical Labs

Heidi Rehm is board-certified by ABMGG in Clinical Molecular Genetics and Genomics and serves as BCL’s Chief Medical Officer and Clinical Laboratory Director. She oversees BCL’s regulatory requirements, leads the clinical team performing genomic interpretation and variant analysis, and guides BCL’s efforts in genomic testing for clinical and research use. She is also an Institute Member of the Broad and co-director of the Medical and Population Genetics Program. Rehm is also the Chief Genomics Officer in the Department of Medicine and Genomic Medicine Unit Director at the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, working to integrate genomics into medical practice. She is a principal investigator of ClinGen, providing free and publicly accessible resources to support the interpretation of genes and variants. She co-leads both the Broad Center for Mendelian Genomics, focused on discovering novel rare disease genes, and the Matchmaker Exchange, which aids in gene discovery. She is Chair of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, a principal investigator of the Broad-LMM-Color All of Us Genome Center, co-leader of the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), and a Board Member and Vice President of Laboratory Genetics for the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.

Rehm received her B.A. degree in molecular biology and biochemistry from Middlebury College before earning her M.S. in biomedical science from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University. She completed her post-doctoral training with David Corey in neurobiology and a fellowship in clinical molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Niall Lennon, Ph.D.

Chair and Chief Scientific Officer, Broad Clinical Labs

As Chair and Chief Scientific Officer of Broad Clinical Labs, Niall Lennon leads the team and sets the scientific and clinical vision for the organization. Dr. Lennon joined the Broad Institute in 2006 and has since contributed to the development of applications for every major massively parallel sequencing platform across a range of fields. In 2013 Dr. Lennon led the effort to establish a CLIA licensed, CAP-accredited clinical laboratory at the Broad Institute to facilitate return of results to patients and to support clinical trials. More recently, he has led efforts to achieve FDA approval for large-scale genomics projects (NIH’s All of Us Research Program) and for Broad’s own clinical diagnostic for COVID-19 testing operation, which returned 37+ million results to patients. Dr. Lennon is a principal investigator of the eMerge and All of Us projects, an Institute Scientist at Broad, Associate Director of Broad’s Gerstner Center for Cancer Diagnostics, and an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University, where he teaches Molecular Biotechnology.

Dr. Lennon received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from University College Dublin and completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He holds an executive certificate in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.