Dean Kamen is getting used to welcoming federal officials to the Millyard, especially when they arrive to announce another round of taxpayer dollars to fund the biofabrication project the inventor launched in 2017.
Another $44 million here. Another $100 million there. Add the in-kind funds from industry and institutional partners that helped launched the project, and you’re talking about nearly a half-billion dollars toward making the Queen City the epicenter of a new industry that will mass produce human cells, tissue and organs.
A contingent led by Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves traveled to Manchester on July 2 to formally announce that the effort led by Kamen’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) was awarded $44 million from the federal Tech Hubs program.
Last fall, the newly christened ReGen Valley — the name Kamen and his partners hope will one day trump California’s Silicon Valley — was named one of 12 Tech Hubs by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. The designation put the regional effort in line for a share of $504 million earmarked for the program.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris at the start of this administration have been focused on harnessing the American innovation that we see here in Manchester and spreading economic opportunity to every corner of the country,” Graves told a group of ARMI executives, government officials and community partners gathered at 150 Dow Street, a building that is being retrofitted for biofabrication labs and production space.
The meeting, which was preceded by a trolley tour around the Millyard and downtown Manchester for the visiting delegation, gave Kamen the opportunity to thank government leaders, including the state’s all-Democrat congressional delegation.
During the trolley ride, ARMI Deputy Executive Director Maureen Toohey pointed to the YMCA downtown and noted that part of the $44 million will be used to expand child care programs there.
While creating a process to mass produce human body parts might seem far-fetched, organizers see among their greatest challenges not just the mysteries of science but the availability of support services for the workforce that will be essential to the effort’s success.
“I think it’s pretty clear that when you look at what’s going on all over this country and some of the biggest states with the biggest state and other federal budgets in health care — Texas, California, New York — what ARMI is doing now with 200 members is creating an explosion of opportunity here,” Kamen told the group. “But it’s put us under stress for child care, for housing, to create the workforce of the future we need.”
From left: U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves, ARMI Executive Director Dean Kamen and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen listen to Jodie Nazaka, economic development director for the city of Manchester, during a trolley tour of the Millyard and downtown Manchester on July 2. (Photo by Kendal Bush/ARMI)
The announcement marks the federal government’s ongoing investment in the project, which now has more than 200 industry partners. In May, ARMI officials confirmed that the Department of Defense has committed $100 million over the next 10 years to the project.
That funding is an extension of the original $80 million secured from the Department of Defense in 2017 that was matched by $214 million from commercial companies, academic institutions and nonprofit partners. Other major awards include $44 million from the Economic Development Administration as part of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge in 2022.
Kamen acknowledged the support of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation in supporting legislation that has led to the federal funding ARMI has thus far secured.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen noted the vast potential of the work underway to improve health care for people fighting chronic diseases, including her granddaughter, Elle, who suffers from type 1 diabetes.
“All of the innovation that happens here is going to make such a huge difference in the lives of people, not only in New Hampshire but across the country,” Shaheen told the group.
The underlying question continues to be whether Manchester and the surrounding communities will be up to the challenge.
Mayor Jay Ruais, whose great-great grandparents immigrated to Manchester from Montreal to work in the mills, compared ReGen Valley to the creation of the factory city that a century ago became a global textile leader, adding infrastructure like housing and schools as they were needed.
“We’re in a similar situation where we are now leading the world. It’s just a different industry,” Ruais said. “We led the world in textiles. Now we’re leading the world in biofabrication and regenerative medicine. The city has to grow to meet this, and the city is here for it.”
