Today we’d like to introduce you to John Dobak.
Thanks for sharing your story with us John. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I came to UCSD to go to medical school after graduating from UCLA. In the 1990s, San Diego had a nascent biotechnology community that collaborated with some of my UCSD professors. People in academia and medicine didn’t really do start-ups back then, but I was fascinated by the idea of science, medicine, and entrepreneurship, and so decided to embark down that path after I graduated. I can remember the shock on the face of my medical school advisor when I told him I was withdrawing from the residency match and going to try and start a company. I initially got interested in therapeutic devices and received an SBIR grant to develop a cryo catheter to treat cardiac arrhythmias. That lead to my first two start-ups CryoGen/CryoCor and INNERCOOL therapies. It has been an interesting and rewarding career path, but it has also been incredibly challenging having weathered huge external forces like the dotcom bubble burst, 9/11, the Great Recession, and even hurricane Katrina that in addition to destroying New Orleans, essentially destroyed one of my companies.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As I noted before, the path of biotech is always bumpy and can even be jarring. About a year after we got started here at DermTech, Medicare and the American Medical Association changed the rules around the reimbursement of genomic tests and investment nearly dried up in this sector. Although our product sounds simple and incredibly intuitive, it was extremely challenging to develop leading to several delays. The main issue is that we have work with extremely small quantities of low quality genetic material so making the product work reliably was a big struggle.
Please tell us about DermTech.
DermTech has a non-invasive platform for assessing skin diseases using genomics. We use an adhesive patch to collect skin samples rather than a scalpel. Nearly 40% of visits to the doctor involve a skin problem, so DermTech can fundamentally transform the practice of medicine. Our first product identifies gene expression risk factors for melanoma in pigmented lesions (e.g. moles). This product is truly lifesaving, having the ability to pick up melanoma changes at the earliest stages, when it is entirely curable.
We have another product that is close to introduction that will look at genomic risk factors for basal cell and squamous cell skin cancer, the most common skin cancer types. In addition, we can assess the causes of inflammatory skin diseases, such psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, and we collaborate with large pharmaceutical companies to help them develop drugs for these conditions. DermTech is the leading company in this new area of molecular dermatology, and we have developed extensive intellectual property as a result. Our company, its employees, and investors have incredible grit and vision, having overcome many obstacles to introduce this platform commercially. I tip my glass to all of them.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
In junior high, during the summer, we would take the morning bus from Tustin to Newport Beach. We would surf all day long, wind up completely starving, and in the afternoon, spend our last pennies on a burrito and fries from Del Taco.
Contact Info:
- Address: 11091 N Torrey Pines Rd
La Jolla, CA 92037 - Website: dermtech.com
- Phone: 8584504222
- Email: sales@dermtech.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dermtech
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dermtech
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DermTech
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/1746405/
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