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2019 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 49 HEALTH & BIOPHARMA transferred to mice and are then compared with human cancers, to see where there are similarities and differences. This research will benefit both dogs and humans. Ilzarbe said people commonly confuse genetics and genomics but they are not the same. In genomics – the study of the entirety of an organism's genes, called the genome – researchers use high-level mathematics and computing known as bioinformatics to "analyze enormous amounts of DNA-sequence data to find variations that affect health, disease or drug response," according to JAX's website. Genetics, by contrast, "involves the study of specific and limited numbers of genes, or parts of genes, that have a known function. In biomedical research, scientists try to understand how genes guide the body's development, cause disease, or affect response to drugs." JAX has expertise in both genetics and genomics, and its work has led to advances in personalized medicine: treatment optimized for an individual's personal biological makeup. This type of approach is being used not only for cancer but for a variety of diseases and conditions – including diabetes – and treatments once thought to be futuristic are becoming mainstream. "If you looked back 20 years, some of the stuff that we're doing now would have been considered science fiction; the [biomedical] field and JAX have definitely taken some of the 'fiction' out of it," Ilzarbe said. "We really think that our future is using model systems to help prevent and treat human disease." The lab's strategic location has given JAX opportunities to work closely with UConn's medical school faculty and UConn Health clinicians, as well as with medical and dental graduate students who have been working on their PhD theses at Jackson Labs. "We're now exploring with UConn Storrs how to have students from the computer science and engineering department, and the molecular and cell biology department, be assigned to the JAX faculty as well," Ilzarbe said. JAX is also benefiting from its ability to draw on the talent base in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, and to work with several world-class institutions in the region. It was recently awarded an $11 million grant for a project that includes collaborators from Yale, Hartford Hospital, and a biotech startup called Azitra, co-founded by a JAX faculty member, Julia Oh. State incentives that originally helped bring JAX to Connecticut included $99 million in grants and $192 million in secured, forgivable loans – in exchange for a promise that the company would employ at least 300 people, 30% of them with salaries at or above 125% of the state's average wage, within a decade. JAX exceeded that hiring target within four years, and thousands of additional jobs were created across the state as a result of the deal. Setting up shop in Connecticut, Ilzarbe said, "was a win-win for everyone." Today, JAX Genomic Medicine's state-of-the-art building is home base for about 420 people, including 390 full-time employees and 30 students and trainees. The structure was "phase one" of the initial plan, with a research wing slated for later, Ilzarbe noted. "But we've expanded so quickly that we are actually leasing space from UConn now because our building is completely full. We're still recruiting faculty members, so we envision continued growth." Miguel Ilzarbe, director of operations and administration for JAX Genomic Medicine, says mice are being used to find new ways to fight human disease. Along with advancing cancer-fighting research and treatments, Farmington-based JAX Genomic Medicine has created thousands of additional jobs across the state.