We are Biotech, Are You?

“I Am Biotech” is donating $25 to a charity for every story they receive from a person working in biotech. One of the charities on their list of recipients is the Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF).

If you work in the biotech field (in any type of position) and you want to help speed up the process of developing therapeutics for patients, please help support the MRF and submit your own story. They are looking for written stories (500-700 words), audio or video. Your story you should cover the following:

• your views on the promise of biotech;
• your personal story of how and why you are working in biotech; and
• how your work has (or will soon) touch people’s lives.

Here is our MRF teammember, Jay Tung’s story in support of the Myelin Repair Foundation:

In college, I studied both Chemistry & Biochemistry because I wanted to understand and control biological processes using chemical agents. I earned my B.S. in those disciplines at  U.C. Berkeley and afterwards earned a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Yale University

I’ve also been personally driven by my goal to deliver potential therapeutic agents for clinical evaluation and eventually marketed therapeutics for unmet medical needs.

After I finished my studies at Yale, I worked at Big Pharma (Eli Lilly), a start-up biotech (Athena Neurosciences) and a biopharma (Elan Pharmaceuticals) company.

When I left Élan I was head of their chemistry efforts, directing the research and developing their research strategy to deliver small-molecule therapeutics. Along with the great science, and valuable working relationships that I participated in while at Élan, I am most proud of providing “1st in class” small molecule therapeutics for clinical evaluation, one of which is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Three and a half years ago, I met Rusty Bromley, the COO of the Myelin Repair Foundation. He introduced me to the MRF and their collaborative research model which intrigued me because of my personal goals.

Currently, I’m working as VP of Drug Discovery at the Myelin Repair Foundation where I am participating in the development of a collaborative research model that is allowing me to further my goal of bringing therapeutics and treatments to patients much more quickly than using the traditional research process. The MRF’s Accelerated Research Collaboration model (ARC model) enables the cooperative refinement of academic and industrial perspectives to understand the biological pathways responsible for myelin repair, identification of the relevant disease targets, validation of the targets, translation of these targets into the pharmaceutical sector.

From my experience, biotech has been fertile ground from which many new therapeutics have been developed. In many cases, biotech has provided some of the early target identification, and much of the target validation, and some of the early stage drug discovery efforts that have motivated Pharma to concentrate on developing therapeutics. The MRF is employing the same rigorous standards utilized in Biotech and Pharma to validate targets. In doing so we lower the risk for drug discovery organizations to work on these targets. This synergistic model will speed up the development of a myelin repair therapeutic.

As part of my interest in developing therapeutics I also volunteer my time at various organizations. I serve on the Medical Advisory Board at the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation, on the Scientific Advisory Board at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and on the Scientific Review Board at  the International Rett Syndrome Foundation.

I see myself continuing to work in this field for many more years because new targets will need to be identified for not only myelin repair in multiple sclerosis (MS) but also for several other diseases that currently have no effective treatments. There are refinements that can occur from both the pharmaceutical, academic, and medical foundations that can facilitate this process.

I’m proud of my work with biotech and with the MRF because I’m making an impact that will help bring therapeutics to MS patients and I’m part of a new research model that will help with developing therapeutics for a variety of other illnesses.