When a recruiter reached out to him about an open position at OmniSeq, Paul DePietro had never even been to Buffalo.

“It was not on my radar,” Paul said. “But the thing that struck me most after visiting was that the city was moving in a positive direction. It seemed like Buffalo was really building up.”

And that comes from a person who has lived in Washington DC, Palo Alto, CA, and Scranton, PA.

After a visit to the region on an interview, a stay at a Canalside hotel, a tour of city hotspots, and a few delicious meals, Paul decided to accept the position and relocate.

Now his family, including four kids, is loving everything about Buffalo. They’re at Shea’s for theatre, youth ballparks for little league games, and the Buffalo Central Library for a good book often.

“We’ve done everything,” said Paul. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised living up here. It’s not gigantic, but big enough to sustain interesting things.”

Why Buffalo for a job in life and health sciences?

I never thought of Buffalo as a hub of biomedical sciences. OmniSeq is doing things that I feel aren’t being done anywhere else in the world, to be honest.

And when I first visited, I was blown away by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus for research. The building I work in is named after a Nobel Prize winner. Roswell Park Comprehensive Care Center is right down the street. It’s a neat opportunity.

How easy was it finding community?

We have since bought a home, but even when we rented, the folks were great people. They quickly got us involved in Block Clubs and neighborhood associations. It’s a tight-knit community.