Dr. Anne S. De Groot is a major success story, not just in Rhode Island but across the globe.
She bridges the research and clinical aspects of medicine unlike many others, founding and still leading EpiVax Inc., the growing venture that is getting more and more traction for its toolkit to analyze, design and produce more effective vaccines across a range of diseases.
She is the director of the University of Rhode Island’s Institute for Immunology and Informatics, which has much the same mission, with a focus on tropical and emerging infectious diseases.
While those two success stories are not all she has done, they are enough to appreciate how much she means to Rhode Island and beyond.
And she isn’t sitting still. The cover story Q&A in this week’s issue charts her expectations moving forward, including plans to spin off a new company that will use EpiVax’s tools to create cancer vaccines tailored to individuals’ body chemistry.
But Dr. De Groot’s success story is about more than individual talent and effort. It is also a testament to the power of public investment in basic scientific research. National Institutes of Health and Small Business Innovation Research grants have allowed De Groot and her colleagues to lay the building blocks for past and future success.
At a time when every public investment is given extra scrutiny, support for basic science research should not be given short shrift. The result in the long run could be a lack of breakthrough innovations.