LSIPR 50 2017: Anthony Atala—Surgeon by day, researcher by night

While most people in the life sciences industry pick one vocation, Anthony Atala is one of the few who has successfully forged two careers in one field. Atala is a practising surgeon and a researcher in the area of regenerative medicine at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), a US-based institute for translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies.

Atala tells LSIPR that his twin roles as surgeon and researcher help him improve in each pursuit.

“Treating patients keeps me focused on the long-term results of our regenerative medicine research to bring healing therapies and technologies to fruition,” he says.

“And as a researcher, having direct contact with patients keeps me mindful of why the work is important.”

Atala, whose work focuses on growing human cells, tissues and organs, explains that the main achievements of his team of more than 450 researchers are those that have benefited patients, such as the use of engineered laboratory-grown tissues and organs.

Discussing challenges that he has faced in his career, Atala says there is no one secret for overcoming challenges and adds that his team’s approach is to try different strategies and persevere.

“There have been many challenges since I began work in this field more than 25 years ago. Among the first was learning to expand certain types of cells outside the body.

“A major challenge today is learning to engineer complex solid organs such as the heart and liver that contain billions of cells and have complex nutritional requirements,” says Atala.

The focus in Atala’s field is mainly on developing new therapies, varying from cell therapies to tissue patches, replacement tissue and organs.

“Major challenges include being able to engineer complex organs such as the kidney and liver and developing manufacturing processes that will allow us to more quickly make successful treatments more broadly available.”

In the coming years, WFIRM hopes to push forward more of the technologies it is working on and get them through the clinical trial process so that patients can access them. WFIRM is working to develop cell therapies as well as replacement tissues and organs for more than 30 different areas of the body.

First steps

Atala is now the director of WFIRM, but his early medical career did not focus on research. In order to enter his current field of expertise, he explains, the first step is to become exposed to research.

“The field of regenerative medicine, by its very nature, is multidisciplinary. My advice for anyone looking to enter our field is to pursue their passion in their basic field of interest, from molecular biology to biomaterial science, and then to apply it to the broader field of regenerative medicine,” he says.

Atala’s team at WFIRM files many patents, with an intention to get new therapies to patients as quickly as possible, but he highlights that the institute also shares some of its technology with many collaborators.

“The value of IP protection in the field of regenerative medicine is that it helps ensure that new therapies are commercialised,” says Atala.

“Because it takes a long time to perform clinical trials and clear the regulatory pathway, the patent process is essential to preserve the competitive position of the invention during this development period.

“It can also aid in funding of the technology in a startup or add value to a larger company that licenses the technology for commercialisation,” he adds.

Patents and awards

Atala has applied for or received more than 250 national and international patents.

He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, to the National Academy of Inventors in 2013, and to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2016.

And he is a recipient of several awards, including the Barringer Medal from the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons for distinguished accomplishments, the Gold Cystoscope Award and the Ramon Guiteras Award from the American Urological Association, and the US Congress-funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, which is given to a living American working on a discovery that will significantly affect society.