“The cytoskeleton is like the wood frame of a house,” she says. “It gives the cell structural integrity. The cytoskeleton is very much involved with anything to do with cell movement. The aberrant cell movement involved in cancer integrally involves the cytoskeleton, and makes it a very good target for many anti-cancer drugs, because you can stop the movement.”
Washington Park residents Middleton and husband, Ashley Davis, Ph.D., chose the name for their business, Cytoskeleton, Inc. Founded in 1993, the company produces purified proteins and kits designed to help academic and commercial researchers create new treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Raised outside Liverpool, England, Middleton became hooked on genetics as a young girl. “Because of the advent of molecular biology, I found it extremely exciting – and clearly the wave of the future,” she says. “I thought it would have a huge impact on everyday life, which it has.” She went on to earn a doctorate in genetics at the University of Nottingham.
Also raised in England, Davis met Middleton there. He earned one of the first Ph.D.s in biotechnology in England before they located to the United States to perform post-doctoral work at the University of California at Santa Barbara. But the driven couple had little time to adopt the proverbial laid-back lifestyle.
“We had four years there, and we only had three days on the beach,” Davis says. Middleton laughs. “He’s exaggerating,” she says. “Five or six.”
“We were doing yeast genetics, and found we were good at it,” says Davis. “We were the first in the field to commercialize a few proteins which had a large impact on the research field in cancer therapy.”
The couple soon found the U.S. a more nurturing scientific environment. “We intended on staying three years and here we are, 15 years later,” Middleton says. “There’s far more of a can-do attitude here than in England. I don’t like the health care system, but I don’t think we could have started a biological company in England. When we started, we could get things printed overnight, while in England at that time things would close at four and nothing was open on Sundays. This 24-hour culture is very, very conducive to entrepreneurs.”
Although they found the clinical side of cancer research compelling, the pair decided to stick with basic research when they struck out on their own to found Cytoskeleton, Inc. in San Diego. “It was very expensive to go into the clinical trial side of things, and we both firmly believe that the strength of the company going forward is to run on revenue.”
The novel choice also favored peace of mind and greater autonomy. “It’s a much more comfortable way to live,” Davis says. “And you remain your own boss.”
But independence has a price. “It slows you down,” says Middleton. “If you have a killer idea, you know you’re going to take three to four times longer to develop it, because you’re paying for it.”
When an offer for inexpensive lab space came through a friend in Denver in 1994, the couple relocated the business to the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research, then based near City Park. In 2000, they moved to their current location on S. Acoma St.
While still in Santa Barbara, Davis and Middleton briefly attempted to bring their love affair with molecular biology to a broader commercial market by creating and selling DNA key rings. “We would take DNA from people, put it in a key ring, put resin on the top to preserve it, and they could carry around their DNA,” Davis says.
“We advertised it in The Enquirer because we thought the audience might be interested, but it was crazy,” says Kim. “It was like three years before Jurassic Park, when DNA became all the rage, but I think even now it wouldn’t take off. It was just a geeky scientist thing.”
And speaking of geeky scientists, although their work can seem rather abstract, it plays an integral role in cancer research and, ultimately, treatment. They spend their days fermenting bacteria and making cultures that produce proteins they collect. “It’s also starting to range outward to the whole biological area,” says Davis.
Cytoskeleton, Inc. performs their own experiments and has taken out patents on some of their basic research products, largely for protection. “It’s very competitive,” Davis says. “Another competitor can take something I make, reverse-engineer it, give it another name, and make money on it. We got burned early on, and now we make an effort to protect things we develop. Even though they’re not like drugs that take 7 to 15 years to develop, they take two years, and for a company our size, that’s a huge investment.”
They constantly work to keep ahead of developments in the field. “We’re a very niche company, so one of our strengths is to create products in anticipation of needs,” Middleton says. “Particularly, we’ve opened up areas to non-specialists with the kits we create.”
A specialist in nerve damage studying a neurodegenerative disease, for example, might speculate on the cytoskeleton’s role in the disease. “We offer a range of kits geared toward non-specialists in cytoskeletons,” says Middleton. “They will tell us what they want to do and we will say, ‘Use this kit, this kit, and this kit, and you’ll have an answer as to whether or not your idea has any grounds to it.’”
The most challenging part of their work? Melding scientific personalities with more general business types. “How to make those personalities work well together, when you require a managerial organization and a scientist who has a blatant disregard for managerial organization,” Middleton says. “Scientists are very creative people, similar to artists with their concepts. It’s interesting to figure out how not to crush somebody’s creativity, but allow them to work within an organized environment.”
Davis finds the struggles of trying to grow a company most difficult. “You start hiring, and the first people help a lot because they take tasks away from you, and then you hire a few more, and start using up funds rapidly – before they have made any impact on the
Despite the ongoing balancing act, Cytoskeleton, Inc. continues to thrive. And the birth of a daughter four years ago has finally helped the couple carve out some time for themselves. They take turns having lunch with their preschooler and picking her up from school. “We used to work all weekend, and now Sunday is family day and we do a few hours each on Saturday,” Middleton says.
And they continue to find pushing the envelope of their own understanding in a dynamic field captivating, as they juggle work and family demands. “They were using our products to help in the research of a lot of the drugs that have been discovered to fight cancer,” says Middleton. “It’s a small thing, but it makes you feel good.”
