Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com August 29, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 9 CT's bioscience investment lured Rodriguez to UConn By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBusines.com T he energy, insight and creativity of Dr. Annabelle Rodriguez, the found- er and chief scientific officer of Lipid Genomics Inc., is astounding, according to company CEO Gerry Smith. Rodriguez allows her work to be led by observations that others may overlook by adherence to con- vention, Smith said in an email, adding that she has per- ceptions connect- ed to the real world that lead into the unknown — where there is little, if any, standard science. "A good term for this process is cognitive dis- sonance, where an aspect of real- ity is being seen but does not fit into mainstream views," Smith wrote. "Annabelle has an extraordi- nary ability to find and unbiasedly explore those o b s e r v a t i o n s , without getting stuck on a set way of seeing things." Smith valued that ability to see the over- looked when he was managing director of equities for Pennsylvania's Public School Employees' Retirement System, "and it's what I immediately recognized in Annabelle's work and her ways of looking at things," he said. No wonder, more than a decade ago, she questioned conventional wisdom that people with desirable levels of good cho- lesterol, HDL, shouldn't have heart attacks. Seeing patients with high HDL and heart disease at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, she questioned why, studying the genetics behind it. "That's our mission, to help under- stand that paradox," said Rodriguez, 59, a physician-scientist who joined UConn Health in 2012 to advance the technology of her fledgling Lipid Genomics company, which moved into the school's Technology Incubation Program in mid-2015. She is an ardent supporter of the Biosci- ence Connecticut initiative and the good it's doing for companies and the state, a mes- sage she hopes resonates with citizens. She's also a strong supporter of exposing high school and college interns in her lab to the wonders of science and real-world appli- cation of lessons learned in class to solving medical ailments. Rodriguez was born in Honolulu and grew up in southern New Jersey. Her father was a career Army man and her mother had studied nursing in her native Puerto Rico, but never finished after marrying, becom- ing a housewife and raising her family. Her father, who served two tours in Vietnam, went to college after his military career to study Spanish and education, using it to teach in high school, and was a college freshman at the same time as his daughter. "It was funny, sometimes I'd complain, 'My coursework is harder than yours,' " Rodriguez said with a laugh. Her interest in the sciences emerged after she realized she had an aptitude for math and science. "I find it interesting," said Rodriguez, who got her bachelor's degree at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and went to New Jersey Medical School, which is part of Rutgers, graduating in 1983. She then spent three years training in internal medicine with Thomas Jef- ferson University Hospitals in Philadel- phia, followed by a two-year biochemis- try fellowship at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, then three years as an endocrinology fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, joining the faculty and work- ing there until her move to UConn in 2012, where she is a professor and the Linda and David Roth chair of cardiovascular research, the first to hold that endowment. In addition to the rewarding work at UConn Health and working to grow Lipid Genomics, a labor of love she does tangen- tially to her UConn research, she enjoys the state's quality of life and her short, two-mile commute to work. She and her husband of 34 years, Ray Oquendo, who works for IBM's global ser- vices team, have two grown children, a daughter, Mariel, 31, and son, Eric, 28. Mariel is married to Smith's son, Ryan. Ryan Smith is business development manager for Lipid Genomics and Eric is business manager. It was through Ryan's budding relationship with Mariel that Rodriguez met Gerry. The big picture Rodriguez sees for Con- necticut is one where its bioscience industry can play a central role in helping not only find new medicines but inspire youth, generate new companies and jobs, and help the state. "It is about innovating, finding new solu- tions for the common good and as a physician scientist I think Connecticut is just beautiful- ly poised to help solve that," she said, prais- ing the state's investment in the industry and knowing that in trying fiscal times, not every- one will support the effort. n Annabelle Rodriguez brought her research to UConn from John Hopkins' med school. H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S of which shows people with healthy HDL levels who are deficient in a certain protein marker had demonstrated inflammation and almost a 50 percent greater risk of heart attack. "It's a huge sample size that she's done and this is where we get to the quality of the pre- clinical science," Smith said. "When you're test- ing 6,000 different people for these qualities, the science, the odds go up that you're much more accurate." Rodriguez would like to see the protein- marker test, like the genetic test she devel- oped at Johns Hopkins, be a standard test among doctors. Smith said Connecticut, with large health insurers in the area, can take a leading role influencing the repurposing and development of drugs like Lipid Genomics proposes. "We often focus on what patients need and leave what patients can afford as an after- thought," Smith said. "Connecticut … can pro- vide leadership in this discussion. They repre- sent what the patients can afford." Insurer participation, guidance and sup- port at an early stage of drug development is a missing piece of how to dramatically improve and streamline the drug-development pro- cess, he continued. Lipid Genomics' novel research using pro- bucol for targeted heart-disease treatment is an example, he said. "Because [Lipid Genomics] would be repur- posing an existing drug, neither big pharma or VCs are interested in supporting development," Smith said. "Given the amount of time, resourc- es and risk involved, it doesn't make sense for them to. Especially since pricing for this drug, if developed and approved by the FDA for this purpose, would have a shorter time being exclusive in the marketplace. "But developing probucol for heart dis- ease would be a great deal for both patients and the people and institutions that pay for health care," he wrote. "Better targeted per- sonalized treatment at lower costs. Health insurers have a large role to play in recog- nizing this type of innovation and working with the FDA and the [National Institutes of Health] to develop these types of drugs." UConn connection UConn, which recruited Rodriguez in 2012 from Johns Hopkins, owns some of Rodriguez's protein-marker technology, which UConn licensed to her. Lipid Genomics was accepted into UConn's Technology Incubation Program, or TIP, in mid-2015, to assist the fledgling com- pany's diagnostic and therapeutic efforts. When Rodriguez commercializes her technology through Lipid Genomics, there will be a royalty stream back to UConn, "so that's good for Connecticut, the jobs are good for Connecticut and the royalty stream is good for UConn," said Rita Zangari, direc- tor of innovation programs and external relations in the Office of the Vice President for Research at UConn. Rodriguez was drawn to Connecticut by the state's desire to support and grow biosci- ence companies, the link to The Jackson Lab- oratory for Genomic Medicine and support for personalized medicine and commercializ- ing academic research for the greater public good. She sees tremendous opportunity for the bioscience industry in Connecticut. Lipid Genomics is one of 38 companies already in or coming to UConn's incubator pro- gram, which includes UConn sites in Farming- ton, Storrs and Avery Point. The 400 Farmington Ave. location was expanded by 20,000 square feet in January, giving the incubator about 40,000 square feet total among the three locations. The new space is state of the art, with a great entrepreneurial environment, programs and resources only offered at a research institu- tion and often unattainable for small startups, Zangari said, adding it's already half-occupied. "It's a perfect environment for commer- cialization," she said. That's what Rodriguez aims for as she seeks to better help millions of potential patients through Lipid Genomics, a small, four-person company of her; Smith; her son, Eric Oquendo, business manager; and Ryan Smith, business development manager. Ryan Smith is Gerry Smith's son and Rodriguez's son-in-law. None is an employee or paid. "Everybody's doing it through sweat equity, believing in the mission," Rodriguez said. n Exterior and interior photos of UConn's Cell and Genome Sciences Building in Farmington, which houses many bioscience- related startups, including Lipid Genomics. P H O T O S | C O N T R I B U T E D

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