You can call it coincidence, maybe it was fate, for Susan Froshauer to grow up on the north shore of Long Island, a few miles from one of the top research labs for molecular biology.
As a child during the 1950s and ’60s, Froshauer enjoyed playing in the family garden and learning about nature and science. But it was a stint as a research assistant in the mid ’70s at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York that would change her professional life.
Froshauer, a respected voice in the bioscience arena, was recently named the new president and CEO of the Connecticut United for Research Excellence (better known as CURE).
It is her job to develop a robust bioscience industry and raise the profile on this emerging sector in Connecticut.
Her goal is to create research and education partnerships, and facilitate collaborations among universities, corporations and investors in promoting entrepreneurship. Froshauer is currently working with universities and start-up companies to identify talent, assess business strategies, and establish a mix of new healthcare-related companies.
“I feel I have a calling and it really is a love of high-end science and taking that science and creating value that helps, literally, our quality of life,” said Froshauer, 61. “It has been my privilege to be in environments and situations where I’ve been exposed to the best of thinkers. I’ve been exposed to wonderful biophysics, wonderful ideas, software development and neat ideas for influencing agriculture and food sustainability. ”
She replaces Paul Pescatello, who served as CURE’s CEO for a decade. CURE has over 100 members that include health-related corporations, organizations, associations and businesses involved in bioscience.
Froshauer is a scientist, entrepreneur and investor, skilled at shaping innovative pharmaceutical concepts, building partnerships, raising capital and getting products to market. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Connecticut’s bioscience sector (in collaboration with UConn) with hopes that it will create jobs and innovative technology.
With a degree in botany from Connecticut College; a doctorate in microbiology and molecular genetics from Harvard; and a post-doctoral research fellowship at Yale, Froshauer’s credentials are stellar.
She has extensive experiences studying viruses and bacterial infections, including a one-year stay as a research assistant at MIT in 1976, and a decade at Pfizer as a senior researcher and later a manager of its Strategic Alliance Group.
It is, however, Froshauer’s entrepreneurial chops, extensive connections in the bioscience industry, and fundraising skills that make her a dynamic pick for CURE CEO.
In 2000, Froshauer was co-founder of Rib-X Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New Haven. The company developed and marketed antibiotics for serious drug-resistant infections. Her partners were scientists Tom Steitz, Peter Moor and Bill Jorgensen. Steitz received the Nobel Prize for his work in chemistry.
Froshauer raised about $160 million from investors for the company, which she left in 2010. Last year, she served as director of the Technology Exchange Portal at UConn’s Office of Economic Development; she assisted Connecticut entrepreneurs and others with training programs for students.
The bioscience sector is evolving, Froshauer said, which makes her job more challenging.
Research resources are now moving from research and development departments at pharmaceutical companies to universities. The investment shift is deemed more efficient and less expensive for corporations. Universities can focus on generating the ideas and innovative pharmaceutical concepts and, Froshauer said, companies can put their attention to clinical trials and other developments.
Universities like Yale and UConn are also spawning their own companies as the push continues for stem cell research and advances in personalized medicine, which uses genetics to predict the likelihood for health ailments.
“It’s all very exciting,” Froshauer said. “We’re not there yet.” Her day begins at 6 a.m., answering emails and continues with daily meetings across the state with various constituents. Froshauer is normally in bed by 11:30 p.m. at her Guilford home. When she’s not thinking about the genetic code of viruses, or the latest innovations in science, this daughter of a nuclear scientist-father enjoys gardening, reading, listening to jazz and the philharmonic, and a good bottle of wine.
Her life partner is a Notre Dame alumnus. She blames him for getting her hooked on Fighting Irish football. She’s not sure who to blame for her lifelong fascination with watching race car events. A self-described “groupie,” Froshauer said the engineering expertise it takes to work on car engines is akin to the painstaking process of working in the lab.
“You’re around a group of people who have a deep passion for what they are doing and they are experts in what they were doing,” she said. “That’s a great culture to be around.”
Froshauer has a quick wit and a playful side. She shares her home with two Labradors. One is named Molecular Dynamic Energy, but is better known as “Molly”; the other is called “Gibbs,” short for Gibbs Free Energy, a thermodynamic term named after Yale biophysicist Josiah Willard Gibbs.
Ask what her biggest challenge will be at CURE and Froshauer responds quickly. “Balance,” she said. “Finding enough time to enjoy all the gifts around me that are outside work; finding time to play.”
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