Sally E. Bahner Photo
Given its location along the I‑95 corridor, proximity to outstanding universities, and abundant office space, Branford has become a magnet for the growing biotech industry.
Case in point is Mount Sinai Genomics Research Center, which moved three years ago into a facility previously occupied by 454 Life Sciences and employs approximately 50 people.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D) , 43, was at Mount Sinai to tour the facility and meet with Managing Director Todd Arnold; Cynthia Turcotte, program management client services; Mike Giordano, quality assurance manager; Daniel Sisco, director of laboratory operations; and Yirong Wang, technology specialist.
Arnold said that Branford’s Economic Development Commission has been supportive of the company and that 90 percent of the hires are from Connecticut, attracting graduates from the University of Connecticut, the University of New Haven, Central Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University, and Yale.
In congratulating the company for its work, Murphy said Mount Sinai was “a cutting edge model,” with focus to attract similar companies. He added, “Branford is becoming a hub of strength in the Connecticut economic workforce.”
Murphy Up for Re-Election in 2018
Murphy, who is up for re-election in 2018, says his campaign won’t get underway for another year. “My focus right now is on grass-roots activism,” Murphy told the CT Mirror in an interview a few days after visiting Mount Sinai.
Instead of taking to the stump, Murphy said in the Mirror interview that he is using his campaign cash to fund the “Fight Back Connecticut” initiative, which “aims to organize – and tap into – the anti-Trump movement that has taken root in Connecticut and across the nation since the president was elected.
“We’ve already seen the power of grass-roots activism in the Trump health care repeal,” Murphy said, referring to the failed effort to pass a health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Mount Sinai plays a major part in health care diagnosis.The company uses human sequencing data to improve diagnosis and outcomes for patients. People can submit their own genome (via saliva) directly to the company to learn the impact of “daily insults” on their health. A “super panel” will discover “hot spots” to discover possible disease.
They are looking for people with disease markers who are healthy. For instance, a man with two siblings with Alzheimer’s disease submitted his DNA to learn if he was vulnerable. It’s part of Mount Sinai’s “Resilience Project,” which a process of recruitment, consent, sampling, results, and analysis. The company is also partnering all over the world in the ASPREE project to reduce health-related events in the elderly.
“Connecticut is in a good place to handle the data,” said Arnold.
Mount Sinai also works with another Branford company, Core Informatics, which supplies software. Arnold said that collaboration enables 100 percent traceability in samples throughout the workflow. They process approximately 200 samples a day.
On the tour, Murphy was shown a tiny chip with a huge amount of data.
Arnold noted the importance of genetic counseling. “It’s a booming field,” he said.
Murphy, like all members of Congress, has been on recess the past two weeks and was on his way to several other stops. After the tour, he took a few questions from those gathered in the lunchroom.
Murphy, a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said, “I’m here to learn… I’m a believer in scientific research on the federal level,” referring to cuts in National Institutes of Health and Center for Disease Control and Prevention by the Trump administration. “We’re now playing defense.”
The upcoming Science March was mentioned. “It’s maddening that we have to march for facts, the truth,” he said.
While he did not talk politics at Mount Sinai he did tell the Eagle in answer to a question that to make a difference people should call and protest.
“People are upset,” he said. “But the system of checks and balances still works… the health care insurance bill didn’t pass.”
He pointed out in the Mirror story that his town hall on health care drew more than 2,000 people, “and that made news not only across Connecticut but across the country.” And there’s always the value in Connecticut voices joining the national resistance movement against Trump, he told the Mirror.
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