Connecticut’s biotech sector needs stronger digital-tech training, improved infrastructure and more robust state funding to sustain its growth, industry leaders said Wednesday.
College students must gain deeper skills in computer science, coding and AI to meet the industry’s needs, said Serena McCalla, CEO of iResearch Corp., a STEM education and research-organization she founded.
“We’re not training them to be able to ask the right questions,” McCalla said Wednesday during a panel on building the state’s biotech corridor at Rebellion Group’s “Shaping CT’s Future: Drive to ’35” event in Stamford. “China is starting their children at five years old in AI.”
McCalla spoke alongside BioCT President and CEO Jodie Gillon; Ashley Kalinauskas, CEO of Torigen Pharmaceuticals; and moderator Paul Thompson, vice president of health plan, payer strategy and industry offerings at DXC Technology.
Gillon noted that the state’s recently announced $50.5 million investment in downtown New Haven — the first award under Connecticut’s new $100 million Innovation Clusters Program — will help strengthen the life sciences sector by funding new research facilities, public infrastructure and early-stage startup space. But she said Connecticut still needs broader physical infrastructure improvements to sustain long-term biotech growth, such as attracting larger airlines to New Haven’s Tweed Airport and developing more lab space statewide.
“We have to come together to make sure that we have the physical infrastructure here,” she said.
Kalinauskas urged the state to expand access to Connecticut Innovations’ angel investor tax credit program — which offers a 25% income-tax credit for investments of at least $25,000 in qualifying companies — noting the program reached its cap quickly this year.
“If that tax credit is being utilized that much, why are we not doubling or tripling access to it, because that not only helps the investor, but it helps earlier-stage companies get the funding they need to have more jobs to make more investments here in the state,” she said.
