Photo courtesy of the Office of the Governor.

A new health science research and development facility at Worcester Polytechnic Institute opened yesterday with a snip of scissors held by Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, school President Laurie Leshin and other officials.

PracticePoint, at the school’s Gateway Park research complex, was built with help from the state’s Digital Health Sandbox grant program and is intended to support academics and startups working in healthcare-related engineering, robotics and other life science research. GE Healthcare, MITRE Corporation, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Boston Scientific and Delsys are among the facility’s members.

The facility comprises four unique ‘point-of-practice’ clinical care scenarios including a fully instrumented living space, a state-of-the-art motion capture lab, a two-bed modular patient care suite and a functional operating room. The space also includes an MRI machine and advanced manufacturing rooms which offer an array of 3D printing, CNC manufacturing and electronics assembly and test capabilities.

“Since taking office in 2015, we have witnessed the growth of Central Massachusetts as a biotech manufacturing and health tech hub due to the talent developing in Massachusetts universities and collaborative partnerships like PracticePoint, which is poised to stimulate the region’s continued leadership in this important economic space,” Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said in a statement. “We are grateful to our partners in both the private and public sectors whose leadership will drive the growth health tech innovation.”

PracticePoint isn’t the only new incubator or life science development in Worcester. A 53,368-square-foot medical device manufacturing plant is slated to become home to $3.5 million expansion of the city’s biotech incubator, and a planned biotech business park near the UMass Medical School recently received financing to fund site-preparation efforts .