"Cambridge is a vibrant university town with an academic atmosphere that's very collegial," says Duncan, vice president for drug discovery at Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), a spin-off company founded 12 years ago using MRC research. "It's a beautiful place to live with lots of bright, interesting people around--not just scientists, but people in economics, business, history, and the arts. The area is just booming."
Bursting at the seams might be a more apt description. Cambridge is a biotechnology powerhouse where centuries of academic excellence--dating from before Sir Isaac Newton--come face to face with the largest and fastest growing concentration of life sciences companies and research institutions in Britain. "Cambridge has a creative, inventive environment, especially in the biosciences, because of its extremely strong academic background," says Tony Talbot, chief executive of Iceni BioDiscovery, a 13-person start-up company developing cell transplantation therapies for diabetes and other diseases. "It attracts very high-quality, ...
