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6 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 9, 2023 Its employees are also well-paid. Jackson Laboratory workers had an average salary of $97,400 last year. Also in 2021, the organization's $106 million in Connecticut opera- tional revenue represented a 375% increase since 2015 and 150% increase compared to 2019, Balles- teros said. "What Jackson Laboratory does has a ripple effect in the economy of the state overall," Ballesteros said. "Jack- son is a catalyst for scientific innovation and economic growth in Connecticut. We are pursuing new collaborations and initiatives that will play an import- ant part in transforming human health and helping establish Connecticut as the bioscience center of excellence." Product development General Biomics has a licensing agreement with Jackson Labora- tory and is working with the Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, whose patients are providing clinical samples (saliva and stool) that will allow the startup to develop and test its predictive tech- nology for newborn illnesses. Weinstock, 73, said General Biom- ics received about $400,000 in seed money at the end of 2021 to help kick-start the new company. He also invested $100,000 of his own money and took out $25,000 in loans. In addition, Weinstock said the company is in ongoing discussions with "about half-a-dozen investors." General Biomics currently has two employees (Weinstock and Kathleen Teter, its lab manager) who work out of the UConn Technology Incubation Program in Farmington. The com- pany expects to have about a dozen employees by the end of 2023, Wein- stock said, as it grows its product development and clinical trials staff. The company is also looking at other potential commercial appli- cations, including a test to predict children who may suffer from future severe asthma attacks. "We believe we can have a home test for this in 2023," said Weinstock, who is also on the faculty of UConn Health. "We recently published a paper showing that there are a hand- ful of bacteria whose abundance is normal to high in kids who could have a severe asthma attack. In layman's terms, you want to find out who is going to have a severe (asthma) attack before they have that attack. We think we can develop a home test for these specific bacteria. This would be kind of like the home tests that are out there now for COVID." Future projects could revolve around predictive tests for diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other metabolic diseases, Weinstock said. Prior to joining Jackson Laboratory, Weinstock was the associate director of the Genome Institute at Washing- ton University in St. Louis. He also was co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Hous- ton, where he was also a professor of molecular and human genetics. Kathleen Teter and George Weinstock stand near a machine that separates DNA fragments in the General Biomics Farmington laboratory. HBJ PHOTO | ROBERT STORACE GO TO >> WWW.HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM/ HBJ-EVENTS/WOMEN-IN-BUSINESS-AWARDS TOP 25 NOMINATE TODAY! DEADLINE 2/13/23 DO YOU KNOW AN INFLUENTIAL & INSPIRATIONAL WOMAN, MAKING REVOLUTIONARY MOVES?