Short of moving parts of the medical school, few options have been taken off of the table. Summers will shortly be convening a committee of faculty from relevant departments to consider this science scenario in greater depth, Hyman says.

But Hyman says the space issues are only part of the overall focus, and that Harvard shouldn’t be waiting on Allston plans to make steps toward strengthening Harvard’s biological sciences where it can.

“I would very much like to speed and strengthen collaboration without waiting for a master plan [for Allston],” Hyman says.

The Corporate Connection

Interdisciplinary collaborations and the construction of a few University labs do not sound like the stuff of a new Silicon Valley.

But Summers is alluding to more when invoking this metaphor.

Like the Silicon Valley boom, the coming biotechnological revolution will take place in both the institutional and the private sectors, Summers says.

“Biomedical research is a crucial area scientifically, and its likely to be a crucial area economically,” Summers says. “It’s very much to Boston’s advantage if Boston can be a center, perhaps the center, for biomedical research.”

This is the point where Menino’s pulse begins to quicken, with the prospect for a new economic engine in his city.

Summers is cautious. “There are a lot of questions to be raised about the type of relationships the University forms with…the private sector,” he says.

“This isn’t the moment to discuss specific plans, but…we need to make sure we are as creative as possible not just in our science, but in our approach to institutional forms to take advantage of these opportunities,” he says.

Hyman is hesitant to allow that Harvard will take a new course of closer interaction with biotechnology in the private sector. “A big if,” Hyman calls it. “We need to explore, we need to have discussions about what that would mean,” he says.

But others suggest the opportunity is out there and Summers is sending the message that Harvard will take it more seriously.

The Kendall-MIT area of Cambridge already has the highest concentration of biotechnology firms in the Boston area.

According to Graduate School of Design Professor of Urban Design Alex B. Krieger, MIT made the decision more than a decade ago that Harvard could make today.