Cultivating life science entrepreneurs with connections to Kansas University can pay off for Lawrence.

It’s not a big company now, but it could represent a significant step in Lawrence’s effort to become a player in the life sciences arena.

The founders of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc. confirmed Monday that they will relocate their company from Cambridge, Mass., to a new life sciences park forming at the former Oread Labs campus near 15th Street and Wakarusa Drive in Lawrence. The company now has just two employees but hopes to hire 30 to 35 employees within the next few years.

The company is focusing on research its founders think could be used to develop drugs to treat a number of diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes. If the technology pans out, the impact on the pharmaceuticals industry — and on Lawrence — obviously would be huge.

There are several aspects to this announcement that confirm what people interested in developing biotech industries in Lawrence have said for some time.

First, Daniel Flynn, one of the co-founders of Deciphera, is a 1981 graduate of the Kansas University School of Pharmacy. Lawrence is in a unique position to capitalize on such connections with KU. Graduates of the university not only have a connection to — and, hopefully, fond memories of — Lawrence, they are familiar with the research being done at KU and how it might feed new life sciences efforts.

Flynn said he and his partner chose Lawrence over Boston, despite the fact that the area surrounding Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is considered one of the three largest life sciences areas in the country. He was sold on Lawrence based on his conversations with the chairman of KU’s medicinal chemistry department and other KU officials and area businesspeople. And, Flynn said, “I was open to the idea because I’m familiar with the university and know that KU has one of the top pharmacy schools in the nation.”

In other words, his familiarity and association with KU probably weren’t the only reasons he wanted to bring his company to Lawrence, but they probably gave Lawrence an edge.

The other significant issue in attracting this company is that it indicates that the Lawrence area is becoming known as a place that is actively pursuing and supporting biotech businesses. The timing on the Deciphera announcement — on the heels of Serologicals’ plans to build a new plant in the East Hills Business Park — may be coincidental, but more likely, it shows Lawrence is being recognized as a potential center for businesses related to the life sciences.

Right now, Deciphera consists basically of two men with big plans. The growing field of life sciences research needs people willing to think big. The decision of Deciphera’s founders to foster their plans and their company in Lawrence is something that local residents and officials should celebrate and support.