CBS alum makes the leap from Harvard researcher to business owner
Steve Braun’s biography reads like the perfect progression from biology undergrad to successful researcher and contented family man. He graduated from the College of Biological Sciences in 1987 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in genetics in 1993 before beginning a career as a researcher at Indiana University. While there, he met his wife Caterina, a fellow researcher. The couple moved to Boston, bought a house and started a family. But Braun will soon be returning to his Midwest roots and revising his resume to include his next title: business owner.
Braun currently leads a team of researchers in the Division of Immunology at the New England Primate Research Center at Harvard Medical School. It’s a career path rooted in his undergraduate experience as a CBS student. “One of the things that I liked best about the University of Minnesota was the emphasis on research starting at the undergraduate level,” says Braun. “Even in the classroom, the focus of the material was the experimental results.”
Braun’s work in translational medicine bridges basic and applied science. “We take basic findings and develop their therapeutic potential,” he says. The research he conducts at Harvard could one day lead to stem cell gene therapies for AIDS. “By putting the inhibitor gene into hematopoietic stem cells, we are hoping to protect all the cells in the blood (including the CD4+ T cells which get infected by HIV-1),” says Braun. “Interestingly, we are using a modified version of HIV-1 itself to carry the inhibitor gene into the cells.”
Making the leap from basic science to a viable therapy involves loads of challenges even for researchers at top institutions. “In my work in the primate model, we encounter similar problems that doctors have had in scaling up clinical gene therapy trials … Many times, we don’t have the necessary data to make a decision and we cannot do a controlled experiment due to a lack of time, money or both.” Often, says Braun, researchers are left with gap in knowledge that closes gradually as new information becomes available.
But as engaging and challenging as his work as a researcher is, Braun’s story doesn’t begin and end in the lab. An entrepreneurial tendency runs in the family. He’s planning a move into the world of business ownership, another of his passions—and his science background provides a strong foundation. “I will go from research to solving business problems, which turns out to be very similar.”
The new venture will entail a move back to the Twin Cities. The company will specialize in self-sealing waterproofing for houses and buildings.”I've been reviewing my organic chemistry,” says Braun. “The advantage of having studied biology is that I had built on the foundations of chemistry, physics and math. Now, I am going back to the basics.”
Once the business is up and running, Braun will be able to put his lab experience to work in a new arena—product research and development. In the meantime, he’s brushing up on his business knowledge learning everything from sales and marketing to inventory and accounting.
“The part of science I’ve always enjoyed is the mental challenge,” Braun says. “Starting a new company, especially developing new products, will be very similar to the applied biomedical science in which I have been involved.” —Stephanie Xenos
