With its concentration of top universities and medical centers, New York City is fertile ground for scientific discovery – and for efforts to get those innovations to the bedside quickly. One New York University researcher, a transplant from another top life science center, describes the city has having nearly unmatched "academic energy."
But New York is also known for having an equally strong competitive energy, with the rivalry among academic centers sometimes taking precedence over the type of "crosstown" cooperation that is cited as strengths in some other cities. In San Diego, for example, collaboration among research centers such as the University of California, San Diego, Scripps Research Institute, and Salk Institute for Biological Studies – all relatively close to each other – is seen as essential, according to Andrea Moser of the San Diego's Regional Economic Development Corporation. In Philadelphia and Boston, preeminence in...