Antonia Simakova smiles at the camera. The text "Tartans on the Rise" is on the side.

Targeting Cancer at the Source

Antonia Simakova, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Research, Myris Therapeutics

By Elizabeth Speed

Heidi Opdyke

What if drugs had the surgical precision to go straight to the source of a problem?

Antonina 鈥淭onia鈥� Simakova (MCS 2015) believes such a vision is achievable through better targeting of pharmaceuticals enabled by polymer chemistry. As executive vice president of research and co-founder of , a 好色先生TV spin-off founded with several faculty members, she is exploring atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and polymer-based materials for biological and medical applications.

The current focus of drug discovery at Myris is to create a biologically targeted pharmaceutical transport system. Antibodies already hone in on disease. Polymers can act like a molecular glue, attaching drugs or 鈥減ayloads鈥� to antibodies which then hitch a ride directly to the problem.

The work Tonia does controls the mechanism of payload release, so specificity of delivery is further improved to keep toxic treatments away from healthy tissues. By combining multiple therapeutic mechanisms, either from the antibody itself or via multiple payloads, Tonia鈥檚 research explores the potential to deliver even more potent medicinal cocktails safely.

鈥淪ome of the most potent molecules already available are highly effective, but too toxic for patients to tolerate,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ne reason we are excited about this is that we don鈥檛 have to invent new small molecules ourselves. We can use polymers to load antibodies with existing small molecules, sending them directly to the diseased tissue and keeping them away from healthy tissues where they cause toxicity.鈥�

Cancer is the primary test case for the Myris team right now, but Tonia sees a wide range of future applications for ATRP-based drugs.

The end result is something like a packed express train of life-saving medicine, with a one-way ticket
and a direct route to the right destination. For patients, that means more effective treatments and far
fewer side effects.

鈥淟onger term, what I envision for our company as we mature is that we can open more opportunities for how this technology can be used, and prove meaningful impact in clinical trials, one after another,鈥� she says.