Working at Torigen: An Interview with Dr. Ryan Clauson
“The Torigen team feels a lot like extended family to me.”
- Dr. Ryan Clauson
How did you become involved with Torigen?
I joined Torigen after being hired in early 2019 coming out of my PhD program at the University of Michigan. I was searching for jobs in the Northeast and got excited about the opportunity of being able to start from the ground up in establishing a research and development program. Funny enough, my roommate at the time also just so happened to be a UConn grad and the week I applied was the same week that Ashley and Torigen was the cover story in the alumni magazine.
Can you talk about the Torigen team?
The Torigen team feels a lot like extended family to me. In my position, I interact with almost everyone on the team on a daily basis and I can honestly say that is my favorite part of my role at Torigen. We have a dynamic team of dedicated professionals just looking to make a difference.
In what ways is Torigen as a company dedicated to research and development?
Torigen is dedicated to research and development on several fronts. First, clinical analysis. Daily, the research and development team is collecting patient follow-ups, compiling efficacy and safety reports and working to analyze clinical samples in order to supply our clients and regulators with the most up to date and accurate data possible. Second, current product optimization. Since my arrival in 2019, we have generated two provisional patents geared around optimizing our current product. Additionally, we have a number of on-going animal studies in murine models. By 2021, we hope to have an optimized 2.0 product that can push the needle just that much further. Lastly, pipeline generation. We frequently work with our business development team to identify new targets and new collaborations in academia and industry that we think will benefits our clients. There are so many product innovations out there for human health, how can we take some of those to the veterinary market and be the champions of that transition?
How is the work that you are doing at Torigen unique?
The first thing that immediately comes to mind is more about our mission at Torigen as a company. We are dedicated to becoming champions for cancer care in companion animals; this is not about dabbling in veterinary medicine while we gear up for human trials. No, we want to be the leaders in the veterinary market.
In terms of my own research, we have some very unique intellectual property that we pursuing currently. If all continues down the right path, we will bring a novel strategy for adjuvanting immunotherapy to market in 2021. Fingers crossed!
Is the work that you are doing right now applicable to animals other than cats and dogs? Does Torigen have potential human applications in the future?
Torigen’s research can be applied to cancer care in seemingly all animals, that includes humans! To date, we have treated dogs, cats, horses, ferrets, skunks, rabbits, and tigers. We have even had discussions with exotic vets about exploring early-stage trials in birds, lizards and hedgehogs.
Why is working for Torigen rewarding?
Who does not love saving animals? I get to come to work every day and make progress in fighting a disease that not only effects man’s best friends, but man himself. But, unlike many other pharmaceutical companies out there, Torigen is already doing it every single day – this is not a theoretical research project, this is reality. What’s more, we have the ability to take new projects to market at lightspeed timelines compared to the human market. I have been here two years and our innovations are already going to be ready to make a difference in the very near future.
Is there currently any new product development going on at Torigen?
Yes! First up, we are working towards VetiVax2.0. After that, we have a number of novel technologies in our pipeline and others that we are evaluating, such as oncolytic viral technologies and monoclonal antibody therapies.