Jackson Lab pushes ahead of hiring goals

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Q&A talks about recent developments at Jackson Laboratory (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 Farmington research facility in October?

A: We have been concentrating on research and recruiting top scientists. We now have hired about 185 people, and we are adding new staffers 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 Connecticut 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 bioscience is to create startup companies. In December, Jackson Lab announced its first spinoff: MultiClonal Therapeutics, which is researching and developing ways to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and airways — like Crohn's Disease — using stem cells. How frequently should we expect companies 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 companies. 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 ecosystem, 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 bioscience 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 exciting research going on at JAX right now?

George Weinstock is studying the bacteria that live in our bodies and aid various biological processes, and that work has amazing implications for medicine. Yijun Raun is mapping the 3D structure of DNA, which is giving us a much better idea of how it works.

Charles Lee is working on a better screening procedure for autism spectrum disorders and is studying cancer genome sequences to improve cancer diagnosis 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 Innovation this fall. We're partnering with the Connecticut Health Council, 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 healthcare today. Our goal is to create an “innovation exchange” that will attract the movers and the shakers 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 capacity in Bar Harbor, Maine — our plan there is to create the most advanced biometric analysis center in the world.