Biotech in Branford: ​“Intellect, Exuberance and Money”

Thursday was a day to celebrate the expanding biotech industries in Branford and Connecticut.

“What’s going on in Connecticut today and in Branford, is the basis of a future biotechnological revolution,” said keynote speaker, Mike Hyde, vice president of Jackson Laboratory. The company, which is headquartered in Bar Harbor, Maine, opened a new research facility on the campus of the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington in October.

Hyde said the company is reaching out for scientific collaboration with the Branford biotechs. ​“We’re open for business. We have new people arriving every month. ​“We want you to get to know us. We want to be partners,” he said.

“People ask us why did we come to Connecticut,” Hyde said, adding that Jackson Labs searched for a new location for three years. ​“Connecticut wanted us to be here.” He said the deciding factors were the state’s commitment to building the biotech industry and the proximity to universities, hospitals and other biotech companies. 

The company is targeted to employ 300 people within 10 years, and has already hired about 180.

“Biotech, Business and Branford”

About 50 people attended Thursday’s ​“Biotech, Business and Branford” forum at the Blackstone Library sponsored by the town’s Economic Development Commission (EDC).

“Branford is recognized throughout the state as the place to come if you are in the biotech industry,” said Perry Maresca, who chairs the EDC. He said there has been a recent resurgence in the biotech industry that began in Branford years ago.

“Branford and the EDC is committed to biotech, it’s all part of our continued growth in the business field,” Maresca said.

First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove described how the town worked with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to bring a new genomics lab to Branford in recent months. Click here to read about a $9.5 million low-interest that the company received from the state earlier this month.

“Branford is a place where the biotech industry can continue to flourish,” Cosgrove said.

Todd Arnold(pictured), managing director of the Mt. Sinai’s genetic testing lab, said the quality of life in Branford attracted the company. ​“It’s a great place to live and there’s wonderful technology opportunities.”

Arnold said he enjoys living in Branford and that more should be done to promote the town and the state. He said there’s been a perception that ​“Connecticut was someplace you pass through to go from Boston to New York. We’ve got to get people off I‑95 and into Branford.”

Arnold said the support from the town, the EDC and the state has been ​“phenomenal” and that’s he’s looking forward to working with the other biotech leaders.

Reed’s Quest

State Rep. Lonnie Reed, D‑Branford (pictured), co-chairs the General Assembly’s Bipartisan Life Sciences Caucus, and has been a driving force in recruiting bioscience and biotech companies.

She said it’s vital to reach out to companies that are expanding.

“We’re building a critical mass in Branford … and all over the state and they’re all talking to each other and they’re all working on collaborative relationships,” she said.

A member of the audience, architect Peter Henshel, asked what Branford can do to encourage companies to come here.

Reed said a good example is the proposed Atlantic Wharf development that will bring upscale apartments to the former Atlantic Wire site on Meadow Street. ​“It’s creating housing for the kind of workforce we’re bringing here. These are very well-compensated young people and there’s a lot of competition for them.” She said Atlantic Wharf will feature close proximity to the Town Center, the Shoreline East Railroad; and the Branford River.

Making Connections

Susan Froshauer (pictured), president and CEO of the bioscience network CURE — Connecticut United for Research Excellence — talked about the importance of collaboration.

“My passion and my role as the CEO of CURE is to connect people in this community and find ways for us to create a stew of working together for job creation and economic development,” Froshauer said. ​“Figuring out ways to pull people together for improvement of our quality of life and creating medicines is something fundamental to my heart.”

She asked each of the biotech leaders to talk briefly about what they do.

Branford native Josh Geballe (pictured), CEO of Core Informatics, said the Branford software company is helping scientific researchers accelerate their rate of research and development. The company, which was founded in 2006, is undertaking an $8.4 million expansion with the help of $3 million in state funding. Click here to read about that.

“We’re a group of people who appreciate the quality of life that comes from living in Branford and on the shoreline,” Geballe said. ​“We find it is a real strategic asset for us to lure software engineers from places like Boston and New York … your dollar can go a lot farther here in terms of housing, and the public schools are fantastic.”

“This is a time of great technological advances. There’s a lot of new ideas and new ways of doing things,” said Chris McLeod (pictured), one of the founders of Branford-based AxioMx.

Audience member Kurt Schwanfelder, who sits on the Board of Finance, asked what the companies need to move forward.

“We need a great workforce that’s well-trained,” McLeod said, adding that he was glad to see people from the school district in attendance.

“We’ve got to encourage more of our young people to careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math,” McLeod said. ​“We’re losing too many of our youth who aren’t going into those fields. That’s what we need to really continue to grow — a good workforce.”

Branford native A.J. Milici, the head of biology at Flagship Biosciences, said the medical industry is at an interesting crossroads. Milici, who previously worked for Pfizer, said the field of personalized medicine is creating a better understanding of treatments.

Milici later told the Eagle that although Flagship Biosciences is located in Colorado, it’s a quick digital commute from Branford.

Doug Hanlon, a member of Branford’s Representative Town Meeting, is a cancer researcher at the Yale University School of Medicine. He talked about Branford’s lure for the scientific community.

“The real quality of life and what makes people want to bring their companies to Branford isn’t just that there’s the right amount of space, or the right amount of scientists, it’s that they want to bring their families here.” 

Of Mice and Men

During his keynote speech, Hyde talked about how Jackson Laboratory got its start as a non-profit research institute in 1929. He said the company had two concepts that were considered revolutionary at the time. One was that cancer was an inherited disease instead of an infectious disease, and the other was that ​“you could use a mouse for a stand-in for a person in medical research.”

Hyde said they now have 14,000 employees working to discover genomic solutions for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. And they have become the leader in supplying research mice. He said this year 20,000 scientists in at least 60 countries will be using 3 million Jackson mice in their research.

He said understanding genes and developing personalized treatments is the ​“new frontier of medicine”

For example, he described Jackson Lab’s Avatar research project, which involves taking tumor tissue from cancer patients and injecting it into specially-bred mice that have immune deficiencies. ​“We can then dose theses mice with various cancer treatment drugs” and try to determine the drug of choice for that person’s tumor, Hyde said.

Hyde said the company is recruiting people from all over the world for the new lab in Farmington. He said that telling prospective employees about the quality of life in towns like Farmington and Branford is a great recruiting tool. He also said the state’s commitment to biotech and the collaboration with other companies is essential.

“Branford is listening,” Maresca said as he concluded the forum. ​“The EDC will continue to do whatever we can to support the bioscience and biotech community.”

Maresca later told the Eagle that the biotech industries in Branford help stimulate the economy. ​“They bring in a top workforce, and they’re well-paid jobs,” he said.

Reed told the Eagle that the biotech companies expand the tax base and bring new residents to town. ​“They will be contributing to the community in a million ways,” she said. ​“They bring intellect, exuberance and money.”

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