LabCentral, a crucial incubator for local drug discovery, is slated to grow amid industry slowdown

CAMBRIDGE — Vietnamese-born entrepreneur Jean Pham is “graduating” from LabCentral, a biotech launchpad on the edge of Kendall Square, after enjoying free lab space for the past year.

Pham and a pair of employees at her three-year-old company, Cellens, shared high-tech research instruments with scores of other scientists, under a LabCentral program aiding startups owned by women and people of color. Her team, developing a diagnostic tool to detect bladder cancer, is now moving to larger quarters in Charlestown.

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“The best type of support we got here was the community,” said Pham, who plans to stay in touch with folks she met at LabCentral, tapping into its informal network of life science and business advisers.

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