In  a ceremony December 13 at the CURE Annual Holiday Party at Alexion in New Haven, the 2016 CURE Entrepreneur of the Year award was presented to Dr. Michael Weiner, who is currently Vice President, Molecular Sciences, at Abcam in Branford.

In nominations for the award, Dr. Weiner was hailed by his peers as “a creative and prescient innovator” and “a self-starter with business as well as scientific acumen.”

Dr. Weiner has successfully founded and sold three companies, two of which were based in Branford (Affomix, acquired by Illumina in 2010; and AxioMx, acquired by Abcam in 2015). The technologies he developed at these companies, widely cited and utilized in the industry, include QuikChange Mutagenesis, next generation DNA sequencing, emulsion PCR, bead-based genotyping, biopanning, and better/cheaper/faster methods for the production of monoclonal antibodies.

Moreover, through his companies and his professional activities, during his 16 years living in Connecticut, Dr. Weiner has contributed time, energy, and resources to training and mentoring numerous bioscience and biobusiness professionals who are currently enriching the Connecticut bioscience cluster.