Mark Allegretta
Ph.D '90
Right at Home
In 2003, Mark Allegretta became the first graduate alumnus representative on the Medical Alumni Association’s Executive Committee (AEC). Allegretta hopes to not only build the network of graduate alumni but also build resources for current graduate students. “We can dramatically help their educational experience by fostering interaction with graduate alumni out in the workforce-whether that’s in clinical medicine, academic research, or industry.”
“It’s wonderful that the administration of the College realizes that graduate alumni are such an integral part of everything going on here. There’s so much good research, and it is such a foundation of what the College of Medicine is.”
Allegretta received his undergraduate degree from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. He worked at Tufts University in Massachusetts as a research technician before coming to the University of Vermont in 1985.
“I was interested in the College of Medicine because the cell biology program offered solid, broadly applicable training that I could make good use of anywhere. My doctoral research was focused on Multiple Sclerosis,” he explains. “I was looking at certain immune responses in t-lymphocytes in people with MS, and was able to show that people with MS had the same types of immune responses as had been found in the animal models of some earlier researchers.”
After earning his doctorate, Allegretta moved to the other side of the country to do post-doctoral work for four years at Stanford University Medical School and then got involved in a start-up biotech firm in Palo Alto called Connetics Corporation. “I was employee number ten, and it was very exciting to get in at the ground level and help the company grow. I advanced to becoming a clinical scientist, and a program leader on one of the company’s auto-immune programs.”
In 1998, Allegretta and his family moved back to Vermont where he founded BioMosaics, a therapeutics development company headquartered in UVM incubator space on Spear Street. Allegretta currently serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer and lives in Charlotte with his wife, Emily, and their two children.
“It’s wonderful that the administration of the College realizes that graduate alumni are such an integral part of everything going on here. There’s so much good research, and it is such a foundation of what the College of Medicine is.”
Allegretta received his undergraduate degree from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. He worked at Tufts University in Massachusetts as a research technician before coming to the University of Vermont in 1985.
“I was interested in the College of Medicine because the cell biology program offered solid, broadly applicable training that I could make good use of anywhere. My doctoral research was focused on Multiple Sclerosis,” he explains. “I was looking at certain immune responses in t-lymphocytes in people with MS, and was able to show that people with MS had the same types of immune responses as had been found in the animal models of some earlier researchers.”
After earning his doctorate, Allegretta moved to the other side of the country to do post-doctoral work for four years at Stanford University Medical School and then got involved in a start-up biotech firm in Palo Alto called Connetics Corporation. “I was employee number ten, and it was very exciting to get in at the ground level and help the company grow. I advanced to becoming a clinical scientist, and a program leader on one of the company’s auto-immune programs.”
In 1998, Allegretta and his family moved back to Vermont where he founded BioMosaics, a therapeutics development company headquartered in UVM incubator space on Spear Street. Allegretta currently serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer and lives in Charlotte with his wife, Emily, and their two children.
For more information, visit the College of Medicine Alumni web pages.
(for UVM staff)