A cutting edge in cancer care
“I’m not a scientist, but being able to write effectively is tremendously helpful. One of the strengths of being an attorney is that you’re trained to present information from a variety of different sources – I need to be able to take all these sources of technical information and distill them into a crystallized argument.”
Jonathan Smyth ’15 knows a good idea when he sees one.
Smyth was an innovation assistant in UB’s technology transfer office, and in his final year at UB School of Law, when he recognized a new concept for cancer treatment with tremendous potential. A graduate student in biomedical engineering, along with his professor, had developed a novel platform for delivering chemotherapy drugs directly to the patient’s tumor. The drugs are activated when light is applied – targeting the cancer while minimizing the harsh side effects of traditional chemo.
Smyth joined forces with the developer and their team won first place in UB’s Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition. Now the company they founded, POP Biotechnologies, is going through the rigorous process that they hope will lead to regulatory approval for the platform.
A Legal Angle
“It’s an interesting role for an attorney to manage a biopharmaceutical start-up.
I don’t know if I need to be an attorney to do what I’m doing now, but it certainly helps,” says Smyth, whose role includes overall business management, recordkeeping, grant writing and investor relations. He also wrote the company’s business plan and often acts as spokesman in public-facing situations. “There are a lot of excellent resources out there,” he says. “If you put yourself in a little room with a stack of books, you can learn anything.”
- Visit the POP Biotechnologies website
“UB School of Law was an incredibly supportive environment. One of my favorite professors, Stephanie Phillips, even came to the Panasci competition when I presented. The professors were incredibly helpful.”
The company is in the process of clinical translation, preparing the technology for clinical testing. They hope to move on to Phase I clinical testing at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, targeting patients with metastatic breast cancer, within three years.
In addition to targeted chemotherapy, the drug delivery platform also shows promise for creating more effective vaccines. The science is daunting, but it’s Smyth’s job to present it in an understandable way. “I’m not a scientist,” he says, “but being able to write effectively is tremendously helpful. One of the strengths of being an attorney is that you’re trained to present information from a variety of different sources – I need to be able to take all these sources of technical information and distill them into a crystallized argument.”
But, of course, the need for legal counsel is abundant in this highly regulated sector of industry, including experience with patent and contract matters. “There’s plenty of legal work to be done,” Smyth says. His focus at UB School of Law was on civil litigation, but he has found that established lawyers with expertise in pharmaceutical law are generous with their advice: “They’re willing to give you 15 or 30 minutes if you’ve got a specific issue. Especially if it’s an interesting one, they’ll take it on.”
As a recent graduate, though, he brings his own learning and skills to the project. “UB School of Law was an incredibly supportive environment,” Smyth says. “One of my favorite professors, Stephanie Phillips, even came to the Panasci competition when I presented. The professors were incredibly helpful.”