And the difficulties stretch beyond Allston. According to Associate Dean at the Medical School Eric P. Buehrens, there is hardly a consensus that closer ties to industry should be explored, even at the traditionally more receptive medical school.

There are a number of worries with regard to interactions with industry. Some hesitancy stems from concern about academic freedom and intellectual property, Hyman says.

“We don’t want people to sacrifice our core values as a result of their involvement [with the private sector],” he says.

Others are more uncomfortable with the notion that Harvard can or should push for this goal of a Silicon Valley II.

“I don’t care very much for [private sector] biotech; intellectually interesting research occurs at the University,” Meister says. “I personally wouldn’t be sad if [the next boom] happened on the west coast.”

Central planning might not even be possible in these cases, Meister says.

“I don’t think that Silicon Valley was planned by anyone. There was no central planning, and even then many feel it has spun out of control,” he says.

Finally there is the problem of unpredictability. Massachusetts’ Route 128 corridor was originally seen as the place from which the information technology boom would emanate.

“As it turned out, the center occurred somewhere to the west of 128,” Hyman says.

“If there was going to be a similar boom for biological science, we would want to make sure, within the barriers of the University’s mission, that we do what we can to make sure that it happens here,” Hyman says.

—Lauren R. Dorgan contributed to the reporting of the story.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.