Harvard University has long played an outsized role in spurring the growth of the Boston area’s life sciences industry, but the school’s contributions have largely unfolded behind the scenes.
Unlike the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge’s Kendall Square — the beating heart of biotech — Harvard has been known less for spinning off startups than for licensing cutting-edge research and grooming the industry’s business leaders.
Image: DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF - A Harvard School of Public Health facility in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. The university plans a campus in Allston that could house biomedical companies.
