Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com May 8, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 13 'Science Cafes' spark collaborative research By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com T he ovarian cancer treatment research Dr. Pramod Srivastava is doing at UConn Health represents the kind of collaboration and conver- gence of scientists that the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science at UConn (CICATS) supports and which it believes can advance new ways of thinking and discoveries. It's one reason CICATS has helped fund Srivastava's research using a new technology for a vaccine that har- nesses a patient's immune system to help fight can- cer, said Dr. Cato Laurencin, CEO of CICATS and Van Dusen dis- tinguished pro- fessor of ortho- pedic surgery. To help pro- mote cross col- laboration and convergence, CIC- ATS in late-2014 launched a Science Cafe program, essentially networking events to help bring scientists together from UConn Health, and across and outside the university to share ideas, collaborate and connect in an informal setting. The Oxnard, Calif.-based Kavli Foundation, which focuses on advancing science and promoting increased public understand- ing and support for scientists and their work, donated $10,000 to start the cafes and recently gave another $25,000 for the cafes based on their early success. CICATS believes the future in science is collaboration to generate new ideas, and, beyond that, convergence, which is bringing together not only people who are like-minded and work in the same area, but people who are in disparate areas and pursue science in different ways to create new ways of thinking to solve problems, Laurencin explained. Starting this summer the cafes, which CICATS hopes to hold about once a month or so, will have an even greater emphasis on bringing people across dif- ferent disciplines together and across different ways of thinking "to make good things happen," Laurencin said. Science Cafe participants focus on today's most pressing scientific and med- ical concerns, including obesity, cancer control and prevention, and cardiovascu- lar disease, according to UConn. Those are among some of the topics discussed within CICATS' core interest groups, one of which, the personalized immunothera- py group, is led by Srivastava. CICATS looks forward to continued development of Srivastava's research and helping him fulfill his dream and those of others interested in transdis- ciplinary collaborative research, Lau- rencin said. n Dr. Cato Laurencin, CEO, Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science at UConn which CI can reinvest in other research and companies. Companies located in-state also produce direct economic impact. "Selfishly, we would like a Connecticut- based company to, if successful, get a chance to grow and develop the technology further in the state where CI can invest," said Dan Wagner, CI's managing director. Assuming the technology translates across multiple cancers, "the market starts to open more and more," Wagner said. Tannenbaum, who will supervise the trial's clinical aspect, said Srivastava is doing per- sonalized immunotherapy in a new way, with technology that hasn't been utilized before in vaccine development. There are vaccines for different cancers in clinical trials, but the way they were engineered is different, she said. "I think he's got just the kind of back- ground and the kind of personality to poten- tially drive this to a place where it could actu- ally work," Tannenbaum said. "Immunology, in my opinion, is really where cancer care is going and it's a privilege to work with him. If this works, it's all because of him." Entrepreneurial roots Srivastava is an experienced entrepre- neur in cancer immunotherapy products. He co-founded and took public Agenus Inc., which makes cancer vaccines, and helped start Ikonisys, which does cancer detection, and Life Science Pharmaceuticals, which makes antibodies to cancer. Dr. Cato Laurencin, CEO of CICATS and Van Dusen distinguished endowed chair and professor of orthopedic surgery in the UConn School of Medicine, said Srivastava's work is "absolutely brilliant" and called the doctor one of the pioneers of cancer immune therapy. His novel vaccine for women with advanced ovarian cancer takes personalized medicine to the next level, Laurencin said. "Dr. Srivastava is a very modest man," he said. His studies are "absolutely incredible and have an incredible potential to move things forward and bring it all forward." n vaccine's fight Distinguish Yourself. "I chose UConn because of the quality of the program, especially the professors and my classmates. The fact that the program was so collaborative, gave you so many options, and there were so many resources, was very attractive to me." Peter Chien '17 EMBA grad.business.uconn.edu • Full-time MBA • Part-time MBA • Executive MBA • MS in Accounting • MS in Business Analytics and Project Management • MS in Financial Risk Management • MS in Human Resource Management Dr. Pramod Srivastava shows a petri dish where an ovari- an cancer patient's immune cells are cultured and mixed with her cancer cells. H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S

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