If you are scientist interested in vaccine research or a foundation board affronted by needless human illness and death, someday you might find Dr. Anne S. De Groot on your doorstep.
De Groot is a seemingly tireless doctor, scientist and researcher in the field of immunology with a special interest in developing innovative vaccines. She is also, as even the casual observer soon discovers, a strong advocate for the growth of Providence as a center of biomedical research.
Her interest in vaccines has it roots in her last year of medical school, when she watched a child in Zaire die of measles, which is preventable with a vaccine. She followed up on medical school with further study on vaccines and immunology.
In 1992, as a member of the medical faculty at Brown University, De Groot used a National Institutes of Health grant to open a TB/HIV Research Laboratory. A technology developed at that lab became the basis for De Groot co-founding EpiVax Inc. in 1998. Since then it has claimed a pioneering role in the development of vaccines for HIV, tuberculosis, smallpox and other diseases. But EpiVax represented another pioneering effort – it was one of the first research-driven biotechnology businesses to set up shop in Providence’s old Jewelry District, what is now so commonly referred to as the Knowledge District.
Since then she has been a relentless force for creating institutions and bringing scientists and money – both public and private – to Rhode Island-based research efforts.
In 2007, EpiVax landed a $500,000 small-business grant to develop a treatment for hemophilia, but there was far more to come. Two years later, the University of Rhode Island recruited De Groot away from Brown and built her a new lab in the Shepard Building in downtown Providence. There, De Groot co-founded the Institute for Immunology and Informatics – or I’Cubed – a small but flourishing center for innovative vaccine research.
When she joined URI, De Groot already had brought more than $15 million in federal and private funds to Rhode Island institutions, and she predicted she could bring more to URI. “I’m not going to be the only one who moves here,” De Groot said at the time of the appointment. “People from out of state are going to move here. It’s really about leadership.”
Proving her point, in 2011 De Groot recruited Dr. Alan Rothman to URI from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He brought with him an active, $11 million research program on dengue fever. The opportunities at I’Cubed, Rothman said, were enormous. “We’re at an early stage,” he said. “There’s lots of building to do.”
For De Groot, building a cluster of successful biotechnology businesses and labs goes hand in hand with building up the Capital City. In fact, she wants to tighten her enterprises’ connection to the Knowledge District. “Somebody build me a building,” she said. “I’ll move in.”
De Groot also has worked beyond her own ventures, collaborating with Providence-based Isis Biopolymer Inc., to develop a transdermal patch to deliver vaccine against tick-related illnesses.
As prominent as is her role in the immunology and informatics fields, De Groot remains rooted in medicine as well. Thus she was among the founders of Clinica Esperanza/Hope Clinic, a free primary-care clinic in the Valley section of Providence. Since it’s opening in May 2010, it has made regular connections with more than 300 patients from the neighborhood who did not have access to the most basic health care before. She says the clinic’s patients have experienced tangible improvements to their health due to the clinic’s ability to manage their chronic conditions. She said the clinic provides “a global health care experience at the reach of the local RIPTA bus line.” •
