This quote comes from a travel magazine but it applies equally well to the life sciences in Greater Philadelphia. The city has been transformed "to a place teeming with stellar restaurants, comfortable cafes, world-class museums and some stunning architecture." Likewise, the region has an abundance of top-drawer academic institutions, a heavyweight pharma presence, a developing biotech base, and an impressive suite of support companies. This was enough for the Milken Institute, in 2005, to rank the region third overall in the United States for core life sciences and second for supporting life science industries.
But what makes this region really cool, as you'll read in these pages time and time again, are the interactions across institutions and companies. This has grown into an extensive network, formal and informal, from which advice and encouragement can be sourced. There's a real sense of teamwork, of...