West Michigan’s life sciences industry marches toward the future

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Grand Rapids Magazine recently reported on the development of Western Michigan's multi-billion dollar "medical mile" life sciences district.

The article discusses leaders in the effort such as Art Alberts. When he was being recruited to be the senior scientific investigator at the Van Andel Institute, Alberts, then a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco was eager to understand the Grand Rapids life-style.

This is what Grand Rapids Magazine reported that he found:

“I flew in one night in October with no preconceived notions of Grand Rapids or the Midwest,” recalled Alberts. Exhausted at the end of a long trip, he skipped touring the city and settled into his room at the Amway Grand Plaza.

“I opened the drapes and there was this guy standing in the middle of the river who had just hooked a salmon,” Alberts recalled. “I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’”

Alberts later returned with his wife for a closer look at West Michigan. They ended up buying a home in Lowell, and eight years later, Alberts has become a Grand Rapids ambassador on the international stage ...