Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • March 23, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Branford is home to dozens of bioscience companies that occupy research and lab space in various buildings around the shoreline town of 28,000 people. Focus Bioscience Q&A Jackson Lab pushes ahead of hiring goals Q&A talks about recent devel- opments at Jackson Labora- tory (JAX) with Mike Hyde, the genomics research center's vice president for external affairs and strategic partnerships. Q: What are the latest developments with Jackson Laboratory since it opened its new Farm- ington research facility in October? A: We have been concentrating on research and recruit- ing top scientists. We now have hired about 185 people, and we are adding new staff- ers every week. We are way ahead of our schedule for hiring. If we can maintain this pace, we'll hit our goal of 300 employees much earlier than planned. We're excited by the amazing quality of applicants we're attracting. Word is out in the bioscience community that Con- necticut is serious about building this sector, and people want to be here, at Yale, and at UConn. Q: One of the main reasons Connecticut invested in biosci- ence is to create startup com- panies. In December, Jackson Lab announced its first spinoff: MultiClonal Therapeutics, which is researching and devel- oping ways to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and airways — like Crohn's Disease — using stem cells. How fre- quently should we expect com- panies to startup from Jackson Lab research? A: It has been just over two years since we hired our very first fulltime employee, and yet we have several labs in full swing now. There are two or three research initiatives underway that have the potential to turn into new compa- nies. However, it's pretty difficult to guess how long it will take to prove a new concept and turn it into a product or service. Equally important is the expansion of research expertise going on at UConn and at Yale. As the "critical mass" of bioscientists grows in Connecticut, we will create a sort of innovation eco- system, where other bioscientists and companies want to locate in order to collaborate with us. You see this kind of clustering of talent around Boston, in San Francisco, and in other places where biosci- ence is booming. When we hit that critical mass things will really take off. Connecticut will be attracting companies from elsewhere as well as starting our own. Q: What is some of the excit- ing research going on at JAX right now? George Weinstock is studying the bacteria that live in our bod- ies and aid various biological pro- cesses, and that work has amazing implications for medicine. Yijun Raun is mapping the 3D structure of DNA, which is giv- ing us a much better idea of how it works. Charles Lee is working on a better screening procedure for autism spec- trum disorders and is studying cancer genome sequences to improve cancer diag- nosis and therapy. Jacques Banchereau, Michael Stitzel and others are forming a statewide center for diabetes research. The list of research projects is pretty impressive and we're attacking disease on many fronts. Q: How can Connecticut further support JAX and the bioscience industry? A: We're planning our second annual forum on Healthcare Inno- vation this fall. We're partnering with the Connecticut Health Coun- cil, Department of Economic and Community Development, and others to make this a landmark event, and we hope that it will be a significant source of leads for new companies to come to our state. We'll be gathering bioscientists, healthcare providers and payers, entrepreneurs and investors from across the country and around the world to analyze some of the most pressing problems in health- care today. Our goal is to create an "innovation exchange" that will attract the movers and the shak- ers from the bioscience industry to Connecticut every year. We're recruiting additional partners and collaborators for this effort now. Q: Beyond its Connecticut operations, what else is going on with JAX? A: We're expanding in all our locations — Connecticut, Maine, and California. We continue to explore connections in China and the Far East, where bioscience is expanding much more rapidly than in the west. We're adding genomic and biological measurement capac- ity in Bar Harbor, Maine — our plan there is to create the most advanced biometric analysis cen- ter in the world. n Mike Hyde Vice president for external affairs and strategic partnerships, Jackson Laboratory Branford is CT's quiet bioscience startup hub By Brad kane bkane@HartfordBusiness.com W hile Farmington and New Haven are thought to be the epicenters of Connecticut's nascent bioscience industry, the small, shoreline town of Branford has been a force in attracting some of the state's most innovative startups. The town's most recent coup was landing the Icahn School of Medi- cine at Mount Sinai, which opened in October a state-of-the-art genom- ics research facility on Commercial Street. Startups like Pfizer spinoff Durata, and neurological disease researcher Axerion Therapeutics are among the dozens of bioscience companies that call Branford home. In an effort to further boost its bioscience foothold, Branford government and industry officials plan to meet this week for the first time with Farmington's Jackson Laboratory to discuss ways they can work together to make the state a national bioscience hub. "We are trying to showcase Branford as the place for the biotech industry," said Perry Maresca, chairman of the town's economic development commission. "Jackson Labs is trying to show their role in Connecticut is more than just in the Hartford region but throughout the entire state." Before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy invested $1 billion to expand the UConn Health Center and entice Jackson Labs to Farmington, the majority of the state's biosci- ence industry centered around Yale University. That made New Haven a natural bioscience hub, since most of Yale's research was done in its hometown. Starting in 1987, however, Branford became a place where bioscience startups began to gravitate. It started with the opening of drug researcher Neurogen Corp., which was acquired in 2009 for $11 million by San Diego-based Ligand. Startups that followed include: 454 Life Sciences, a DNA sequencing specialist acquired by Swiss phar- maceutical giant Roche; molecular chemistry firm CGI Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired for $120 million by California biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences; and Marinus Pharmaceuticals, which has moved onto the latest phase of its epilepsy drug clinical trials. While Neurogen and Marinus moved out of Branford after being acquired, 454 and CGI remain in the town. Branford is also currently home to biotech startups like software manager Core Informatics and immune system researcher Isoplexis. "Historically, Branford has been — in addition to New Haven — a place where bioscience has gotten a foothold," said Susan Froshauer, president and CEO of Connecticut bioscience advocate CURE. By attracting bioscience companies earlier than most other parts of Connecticut, Branford has been able to build facilities that attract the industry, mainly lab and research space. Town officials have also become attune to the indus- try's unique needs, Maresca said, especially permitting for scientific activities that can include medical waste. "You have a workforce that is readily available to be tapped when someone new comes in here," Maresca said. "The town itself very much appreciates the contri- butions that the biotech industry brings." Terry Elton, head of the Branford's economic devel- opment department, said when a bioscience company wants to open, town officials will work with them to expedite the process. Other advantages Branford has in attracting biosci- ence companies, Elton said, include: being located on I-95 and Metro-North, near New Haven, and midway between New York City and Boston; having the low- est property tax rate of any shoreline town at 26 mills; having established water and sewer infrastructure; and boasting 20 miles of shoreline, the most of any Con- necticut town. Elton said Branford also has great quality of life, offering bioscience researchers and executives the chance to avoid long commutes by living and working in the town, which has more than 75 restaurants, includ- ing four microbreweries. By keeping executives and researchers in the area, that makes them more likely to establish new startups and companies in town when the previous generation moves out, Maresca said. Michael Van Zandt launched New England Discovery Partners in Branford because he and the rest of his team had a history with the town. Van Zandt was a depart- ment head for the Institute for Pharmaceutical Discov- ery in Branford until it closed in 2012. New England Discovery Partners, which does con- tract chemistry work for large companies and universi- ties, is now one of six companies occupying the former Institute for Pharmaceutical Discovery's space on Busi- ness Park Drive in Branford. "Branford is a good location," Van Zandt said. "It is right off the highway, which is good. It is close to New Haven, which is good." n Bioscience advocate CURe has held meetings promoting Branford's bioscience capabilities. Pictured from left are Brandford economic development Commission Chairman Perry Maresca, State Rep. Lonnie Reed (d-Branford), CURe executive director Susan Froshauer, and Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove. P H O T O | C O n T r i b u T e d P H O T O s | C O n T r i b u T e d

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