There are three men behind the company known as Oral Fluid Dynamics, but it’s majority owner Robert Kelly who is out front when it comes to promoting the Farmington startup.He owns 60 percent of the fledgling biotech, which is trying to develop an artificial salivary gland to combat the problem of dry mouth, an affliction […]
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There are three men behind the company known as Oral Fluid Dynamics, but it's majority owner Robert Kelly who is out front when it comes to promoting the Farmington startup.
He owns 60 percent of the fledgling biotech, which is trying to develop an artificial salivary gland to combat the problem of dry mouth, an affliction that seems minor but affects upwards of 60 million people in the U.S.
A conversation with Kelly is interesting for its contrasts. He's professorial when discussing what the team's invention will do — they're developing a dental implant with a pump that takes fluid already present from the mandible bone and supplies it to the mouth.
Asked if he envisions what he might do with the money if the product strikes gold, and he admits he hasn't thought about it. Or, if he has, it's not about gaining personal wealth.
“All the [company's] partners,” Kelly said, alluding to Douglas Adams, a mechanical engineer who works in orthopeadic surgery at UConn Medical School, and Martin Freilich, an implant surgeon and prosthodontist at UConn Dental School, “are really mostly motivated by solving a medical problem for some desperate folks. If it works, there will be plenty for everyone.”
Talk to Kelly about his time in the Navy, where he served for 21 years as a dental officer, and he becomes more animated.
A trip from his office at UConn Health's Farmington campus down to his lab involves multiple turns and elevator rides in the cavernous facility. It reminds him of the first time he stepped on a carrier.
“I got lost the first day,” he said. “I couldn't find my way.”
A transplant from the San Francisco Bay area, Kelly also lived four years in Boston during his two-decade long stint in the Navy. After his service, he landed at UConn, where he's worked for 17 years, and moved to Connecticut, part of the New England region he and his wife grew to love.
It's a good fit for his hobbies too, which include walking and photography. His aesthetic side becomes apparent when he expresses a shared admiration for the view from a UConn Health conference room looking out east towards Hartford.
Freilich, who owns 20 percent Oral Fluid Dynamics, has the longest tenure at UConn. He has been treating patients in the dental faculty practice, teaching and conducting research since joining UConn in 1985.
He is the director of pre-prosthetic/implant surgery in the division of prosthodontics.
He also serves as the principal investigator of studies developing new methods of jaw bone re-growth and as the principal investigator of a clinical study assessing the relationship between osteoporosis and jaw bone re-growth.
Adams, who also owns 20 percent of the company, has written extensively on the effect of various diseases on bones. Scholarly articles have included tips on accelerated fracture healing and the effects of sickle cell anemia on the bones of female mice.
It's his research that will help with the effects of placing the dental implant in the mandible bone that forms the lower jaw and will be the host to Oral Fluid Dynamic's implant if it hits the market.
Kelly says the combination of Freilich and Adams with him make for a perfect trifecta when it comes to developing a dry-mouth solution.
