Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • February 5, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS: Bioscience After bioscience investment, CT Children's eyes innovation center Q&A talks with Connecticut Children's Medical Cen- ter's Dr. Christine Finck, and President and Chief Operating Officer Gil Peri. Q. Connecticut Children's Medical Center recently invested $100,000 in a Holliston, Mass.-based biotechnology company, Biostage Inc., that's devel- oping bioengineered organ implants to treat cancers and other life-threat- ening conditions of the esophagus, bronchus and trachea. Why? A. A core mission of Connecticut Children's Medical Center is innova- tion and discovery in cutting-edge techniques that would improve the care delivered to children. CCMC's Dr. Christine Finck and her lab have been working on this regen- erative technology for more than five years. What these organ implants offer is the ability to bridge long gaps of missing tissue and enable the body to repair itself. For babies, this applies to esophageal atresia where the two ends of the esophagus are separated by a long distance. This is something a child is born with. The goal of these implants is to bridge the gap, allow the esophagus to grow together and then remove the implant so what's left behind is natural tissue. This would completely revolutionize the standard of care for babies born with esophageal atresia and mean a better quality of life for them all the way around. Supporting this kind of innovation and technology is crucial as we continue to advance medicine and improve health care for children and families right here in Connecticut. Q. How have Biostage and Connecticut Children's been working together? A. Biostage is working on creation of a scaffold that can be used to en- hance the body's ability to regenerate. Biostage approached Dr. Finck due to her expertise in pediatric surgery and tissue engineering. Together they are working to optimize the bioen- gineered scaffold and bring it to the Food and Drug Administration. The scaffold design came from Biostage. Q. Can you talk about the science be- hind treating esophageal atresia? Surgical correction for esophageal atresia can be complicated and lead to numerous operations. It also significant- ly impacts the patient's quality of life. The goal of this technology is to offer a patient a specific, off-the-shelf solution to this problem. Dr. Christine Finck Connecticut Children's Medical Center Gil Peri President and COO, Connecticut Children's Medical Center By Matthew Broderick Special to the Hartford Business Journal T his past October, when Dawn Hocevar assumed her new role as president and CEO of CURE — Connecticut's membership association of bioscience companies — she brought more than her decades of experience in the sector to the state, she also brought a new name for the organization, BioCT. "I wanted a name that clearly describes our role and who we are in the bio industry," said Hocevar of her 230-member association. "It's more recognizable both inside and outside the state and better aligns [with the naming] with national bio organiza- tions and affiliates around the country." Hocevar, who has worked in biosci- ence hotspots from San Francisco to Boston, and takes over BioCT from Susan Froshauer, sees a lot of positives and room for bio-sector growth in Con- necticut. "There is great passion and talent in the state, we have stellar academic institutions and are in a geographic sweet spot between Boston and New York, which can be attractive for ven- ture capitalists to come," Hocevar said. Those factors — buoyed by a strategic investment by the state of Connecticut through the creation of its Bioscience Innovation Fund to supply quasi-public venture capital — have fueled growth in the bioscience industry in recent years, especially among startups. In fact, according to Connecticut's Bioscience Industry Research Report, nearly 80 percent of all Connecticut aca- demic R&D investments are in biosci- ence. And the sector is projected to cre- ate more than 16,000 new permanent jobs in the state and generate additional personal income of $4.6 billion by 2037. Making those economic projections a reality will require Connecticut to retain its home-grown bioscience startups and talent emerging from UConn and Yale, and attract more established companies. While the state's investment in biosci- ence ventures — through its 'bioscience triangle' of incubator space in Hartford/ Farmington, New Haven and Groton — has provided a positive return on investment, its efforts to lure larger companies has been mixed and required rich state incentives. In 2014, for instance, the state attract- ed the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, which built a 183,500-square- foot facility in Farmington, with $291 million in state aid. Last year, Connecti- cut lost Alexion Pharmaceuticals' head- quarters, which will be moving from New Haven to Boston in mid-2018. Paul Pescatello, executive director of the Connecticut Business & Indus- Bio Branding New name, new leader for state's bioscience association Dawn Hocevar is the new president and CEO of CTBio, the state's largest association of bioscience companies. Previously, she held leadership roles at BioSurplus Inc. and Women in Bio, a leading nonprofit with 13 U.S. chapters. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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