Laurent Levy left UB in 1999 with a dream: transforming his recently completed postdoctoral research on nanomedicine into real-world products for patients battling cancer.

Today, the scientist-turned-entrepreneur is zeroing in on that goal.

In February, Levys drug development company, Nanobiotix, announced that a cancer treatment called NBTXR3, the first product from its NanoXray pipeline, had shown positive intermediate results in a pilot clinical trial on patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma. These results allowed Nanobiotix to finalize and to announce its development plan for the launch of NBTXR3 on the market: With this first indication, advanced soft tissue sarcoma, NBTXR3 could be approved in Europe as early as 2016.

The news led to a jump in the companys stock price and new funding for research at UB.

Nanobiotix got its start in 2003 by licensing two technologies that Levy developed with colleagues at the university and Roswell Park Cancer Institute: magnetic nanoparticles for cancer treatment and diagnosis (NanoMag), and laser-activated nanoparticles for cancer treatment (NanoPDT).

UB received company stock as part of the licensing agreement, and sold the shares in February for $1.35 million. In accordance with university policy, the majority will return to UB, to be reinvested in research.

This is a real success story, says Vice Provost Robert Genco, who oversees the Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR). The office helps commercialize UB discoveries, in part by handling patent applications and licensing negotiations for technologies developed at the university.

Nanobiotix is an example of how UB is benefiting society: As a postdoctoral researcher here, Laurent saw the medical and commercial potential of the work he was doing and decided that he wanted to take it further, Genco says. Were a global university and were seeding companies not only in Western New York, but around the world.

At UB, Levy conducted postdoctoral research with SUNY Distinguished Professor Paras Prasad, executive director of the Institute of Laser, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB) at UB. Prasad is one of the worlds pre-eminent thinkers in nanomedicine, which uses super-small particles, materials and devices to treat and diagnose disease.

In the 1990s, when Levy was in Buffalo, the nanomedicine field was just emerging. He joined Prasads lab, where he developed the idea of using the unique properties of nanoparticles to kill cancer cells.

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UB spinoff Nanobiotix working to bring cancer treatment to market