MassBio

As the state’s biotechnology industry looks forward toward the end of the decade, one focus on its agenda is taking steps to make its workforce better reflect the state’s overall population.

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council calls its annual gathering the “State of Possible Conference.” To hear it described by newly elected board chair Tamar Thompson, Massachusetts’ booming life sciences sector is now at a moment when many goals once thought unachievable are now in reach.

As various programs launch to train Boston residents of color for jobs in the life sciences, nonprofits in the city see a need to raise awareness about opportunities in those fields. For Cambridge-based MassBioEd, that need led to the creation of the Life Sciences Career Hub in Boston.

A new training program in the life sciences aims to bring more people from diverse backgrounds into biotechnology as the industry’s need to fill jobs increases.