Colin Correnti, Project Violet

Colin Correnti: an entrepreneurial path to fight rare pediatric diseases

By Graciela Matrajt

When Colin was a child, he often made some of the coolest science projects in his class. Colin’s father, an environmental engineer, transmitted his passion for science. By middle school Colin had established, with the help of his father, a microbiology lab in the basement of his home where he cultured bacteria for bioremediation. After discovering the fun of science, Colin went to college and chose biochemistry as his major. During a college summer internship at a structural biology and biochemistry lab, Colin's interests in the structure and function of proteins awoke, and he started his senior year research project based on solving the crystal structure of an enzyme, a type of protein involved in the metabolism of carbon dioxide in the body. After graduating as a biochemist, Colin was unsure about the next steps in his career path. He moved to Seattle and after a few months, he got a job as a technician in a biochemistry lab at the University of Washington, where research is primarily focused on the structure of biomolecules and protein design. Colin spent two years and loved the science topics he worked with, successfully publishing some of his results. Pushed by the desire to learn more and become a scientist, he joined the Biochemistry graduate program of the University of Washington where he earned a PhD. During his doctoral research work, performed in an immunology lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Colin focused on drug development and had the opportunity to taste the joy of doing research in a high-quality, non-profit organization, and to meet equally high-quality scientists. One of them, Jim Olson, approached Colin and his adviser with the purpose of collaborating in the design of proteins aimed to treat disease (“The tumor paint project” http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/14/health/tumor-paint-jim-olson/). Colin became actively involved in the project, suggesting several pathways for the design of proteins. The day after his thesis defense, Colin received a job offer from a local pharmaceutical company. Almost simultaneously, Jim Olson convinced Colin to join his scientific team. They wanted to design small proteins called peptides and use them to fight rare pediatric diseases. Colin wanted to commercialize and translate science and saw in Jim's offer the opportunity to do so. Furthermore, as part of Jim’s project, Colin would be directly involved in drug development and commercialization, and at the same time, he would continue interacting with scientists from the Center. Colin found that the most appealing part of the offer was the development of drugs to fight rare diseases. Indeed, most pharmaceutical companies focus their discovery and commercialization on drugs that will be used in common diseases and which consequently will be sold in massive amounts. By contrast, Jim Olson's group envisions the development of drugs for rare diseases for which there are no drugs available and for which no development strategies are planned. More precisely, Jim, along with his collaborators, is seeking treatment for rare pediatric diseases mostly related to brain cancer. 

As Colin turned down the pharmaceutical company's job offer, he joined Jim's group, where he has been working for two years, to design small proteins with therapeutic capabilities. Colin enjoys the everyday challenges of the project, the intellectual freedom, and the opportunity for discovery. In a few months, he will become a dad and will be able to proudly show his daughter the joys of science in the same way his father did with him a long time ago. Colin’s father would be proud to find out that, although not in the genes, his love for science has passed to the following generations, and it is benefiting people, especially youngsters, with rare diseases.