Helicos Cuts 30 Percent of Workforce

Helicos Biosciences, the Cambridge, MA-based maker of genetic analysis tools, said today in a regulatory filing it is cutting 30 percent of its workforce, about 30 jobs, to conserve cash. The cuts will come between now and the end of the year, and cause the company to take a $450,000 charge for termination benefits. Earlier in the week, Helicos named Ronald Lowy its new CEO, replacing Steve Lombardi, who was demoted to president. Back in July, Lombardi said the company had about 100 employees, and that it planned to grow in Massachusetts because Gov. Deval Patrick’s life sciences initiative included support for workforce training.

We’ve updated the Boston layoff tracker with this news, so if you want to see the full list, click here.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.