WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced on Friday that Abcam Inc. in Branford has been named “Innovator of the Month.” Abcam is a global life sciences company that identifies, develops and distributes high-quality biological reagents and proteomic and cellular tools to the health care and life science sectors for drug discovery, in vitro diagnostic, and therapeutic applications. Abcam’s Branford location, which is home to over 50 scientists, was founded as AxioMx in Connecticut in 2012.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Abcam has been contributing to the research and development efforts to understand and defeat COVID-19 by providing new and enhanced tools rapidly to researchers around the globe. Just recently, Abcam announced their participation in a leading United Kingdom consortium that is developing an antibody cocktail to potentially treat COVID-19 which is currently screening for promising antibody candidates as part of the program.

"We need the brightest minds and most innovative companies working to solve COVID-19, and I’m proud to say that Abcam’s Connecticut workforce is part of the solution," said Murphy. "Through their constant commitment to revolutionizing the way research is done, Abcam Inc. has continued to help us in the fight against COVID-19, and I am happy to highlight their efforts in Connecticut, the United States, and across the globe.”

“As it relates to the current pandemic, Abcam has been applying its proprietary technologies to activities such as recombinant antigen expression, antibody discovery and development, bioinformatics, assay cascade, screening and clinical assay development in projects and collaborations around the world. In Branford, we are a lean research group based in the larger organization, which allows us to take immediate advantage of both local and global resources and guidance. Being located in CT, with support from the state through several funding mechanisms, has been really helpful. We are pleased to be recognized with this Innovation award from Senator Murphy.” said Dr. Michael Weiner, Vice President of Molecular Sciences at Abcam.

Abcam hopes to continue to use Connecticut’s funding mechanisms to remain at the forefront of biotech research. Being located in Branford has given the team access to a lot of regional resources, including Yale University and its scientific core facilities, the University of Connecticut, Jackson Labs, and a plethora of local collaborative biotech talent. They hope to capitalize on this as they search for new discoveries regarding COVID-19.

Murphy believes entrepreneurship and innovation are the building blocks for a strong economy. In the U.S. Senate, he has introduced two bipartisan pieces of legislation to incentivize angel investors to put more money into startup companies – the Angel Tax Credit Act and the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups (HALOS) Act. Startup companies create an average of 2 million jobs each year.

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