BUILDING A STRONG STRUCTURE

Keyak began with a love for mechanical engineering during her undergrad years at UC Berkeley and, in the same few years, became disenchanted. As one of the few women in the program in the 1980s, she was met with a lot of opposition from her male peers, teaching assistants and some faculty.

“They constantly questioned why I was there even though I was at the top of my class,” said Keyak. “I like working with tools, I love to drill things and I knew how to design things before I went to engineering school, but they didn’t recognize that.”

Feeling discouraged, Keyak took a few years off to figure out her interests and though her colleagues made her question her love for mechanical engineering, she eventually finished her degree and met mentor, Dr. Harry Skinner, Ph.D., the then professor of Orthopedic Surgery at UC San Francisco, who helped her find a passion in studying osteoporosis. Keyak received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at UC San Francisco and, as part of her dissertation, created a technology that uses 3D imaging from a CT scan to calculate the force it takes to break a bone.

A BREAKING POINT

In 2004, after almost 15 years of studying osteoporosis and developing the technology at UC San Francisco, lead researcher Thomas Lang, Ph.D. and Keyak brought their complementary technologies to NASA to determine bone density and strength loss in astronauts after space missions. Though their techniques proved to be more effective in determining bone loss than NASA’s current technology, Keyak says NASA tends to move slowly because of process.

“With NASA, the funding ebbs and flows. With industry, you get the resources you need. If you’re Elon Musk, the money is there. NASA is different because it’s a real government agency,” said Keyak.
To this day, NASA is still considering adopting the technology.

A year later, with the NASA project in the background, Keyak and Skinner studied the strengthening effect of bone cement on the hip bone for patients with metastatic cancer. Keyak proposed to inject the cement into a patient’s bone in place of major surgery where a metal rod is placed in the patient’s thigh bone — often a traumatic experience for the already seriously ill patient, according to Keyak.

Bone cement can often contain additives such as antibiotics, however, Skinner suggested to add radioactivity so patients could avoid radiation treatment. Keyak soon realized this innovation would be perfect for targeting tumors in the spine.

Many common types of cancer can spread to the bones – breast and prostate cancer being some of the most likely, according to Mayo Clinic. According to Bone-Rad, each year more than 400,000 cancer patients will develop tumors in the bone, 70% of which will involve the spine.

Keyak began a study with the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research program using a technique called brachytherapy, a procedure that places radioactive material inside the body, to treat bones with tumors by injecting them with radioactive bone cement. She found the radioactive isotope Phosphorus-32 (P-32) the most beneficial because it will deliver radiation to nearby tumor cells, but the radiation will not travel far enough to cause side effects or damage the spinal cord.

CEMENTING THE STARTUP

In 2007, Keyak and a team of four co-founders launched Bone-Rad. The team has since worked with UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s licensing officers in the Research Translation Group to patent her UCI technology and has used Applied Innovation’s facilities to hold meetings with investors, participate in pitching events and attend workshops and seminars.

“We would have business meetings with potential funders. Alvin Viray, our licensing officer, would facilitate us going to the Cove so we could have meetings in real conference rooms instead of at someone’s house,” said Keyak.

The team is conducting pre-clinical studies and aims to establish Good Laboratory Practices within their lab to help secure an FDA pre-market approval, a stringent process that is required to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a medical device that supports or sustains human life.

“The good news is — it’s not like a drug where you need a clinical trial with thousands and thousands of patients. We are more in the range of a hundred patients or maybe even lower,” said Keyak. “It’s very feasible, but the process is still costly.”

Since Bone-Rad is producing a radioactive material, Keyak has also been consulting with Leila Safavi, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Purist, a Wayfinder startup that aims to produce and distribute radioactive supplies for patients with serious illnesses, like cancer.

“Joyce has vast knowledge and expertise in this area,” said Safavi. “She’s patented her technology and she’s on the route to commercialization, which is similar to what I’m pursuing. Joyce serves as a motivation and a reminder as to why I want to continue to pursue my startup. It’s been beneficial having her support because since our work has synergy, we can bounce ideas off each other and that opens us up for potential collaborations in the future.”