Several state lawmakers, together with executive and legislative branch staff members, came to the Health Center for a Bioscience Connecticut update Monday. The group heard from Health Center researchers about their latest scientific advances, and saw first-hand the renovation and construction projects well-underway on campus.

Dr. Frank Torti, executive vice president for health affairs and medical school dean, gave an overview of the initiative saying the various programs and construction projects were on-track and on-budget.

Kevin Claffey, professor in the Center for Vascular Biology, talked about his patient-specific cancer drug treatments for metastatic breast cancer while Dr. Pramod Srivastava, director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed his work on a vaccine for ovarian cancer.

The visit included a visit to the Grasso Preclinical Simulation Laboratory where Dental School Dean Monty MacNeil and Senior Associate Dean Steven Lepowsky explained how the lab has become an integral part of the dental students’ education and training.

The group donned hard hats when walking through the renovation area in the Health Center’s main building (L building) where the original research labs are being given a major facelift.

“This is one of our most complicated projects and the least visible,” says Tom Trutter, associate vice president of campus planning, design and construction. “You drive around campus and see all the big building construction projects but there are major things happening in this building.”

Turning the 40-year old labs into state-of-the-art research centers requires a major overhaul of the mechanical and electrical systems. The layout of the labs has also been redesigned so instead of small, confined spaces, the labs are bigger and more open.

“The idea is a more flexible arrangement to have multiple labs together interact and exchange ideas and foster scientific innovation,” says Larry Klobutcher, assistant dean for research, coordination and planning.

“My analogy is sort of like asking for a cup of sugar,” says Dr. David Rowe, director of regenerative medicine and skeletal development, who will be setting up shop in the renovated lab area. “If you know the person well you are willing to ask for it. If you don’t know them well you’re much more resistant to going and asking for help, so the open design fosters interactions that might not otherwise happen.”

Rowe also told the legislative group about his research into skeletal diseases. “The one genetic diagnosis that encompasses more people and causes more health care burden is skeletal diseases such as, osteoporosis, bad knees, bad shoulders, all things that hinder our ambulation. Forty to 45 percent of the entire health care budget goes to treat the complications of skeletal disease.”

Rowe is working with Jackson Laboratory and other Health Center scientists on a new collaborative research project funded by a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The legislative visit was capped off with a campus bus tour of the construction progress of the outpatient pavilion, new hospital tower and Jackson Lab building.

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