For most science students, it can seem that there are only two paths open after one earns a Ph.D. — being a professor or working in a privately-funded lab. Regardless, this confines scientists to a laboratory. Yet, careers in science can extend to nearly any field, even the humanities. At a recent event hosted by the Tufts School of Engineering’s Biotechnology Industry Series, Dr. Atsuko Polzin (GBS'01), senior vice president and head of intellectual property at Scholar Rock, shared her path from research in neurobiology to intellectual property law which beautifully illustrates the diverse roles sciences can have in biotechnology.
The Biotechnology Industry Series invites professionals from a wide variety of disciplines to better understand how students’ time at Tufts can translate to the real world. In this event, Polzin brought together how her experience in scientific research can work hand-in-hand with law and business to do powerful work in the biotechnology world.
Polzin started her career as a scientist as a biology major at the University of California, Riverside. She then completed her Ph.D. in Neurobiology at Tufts where she studied the regulation of synaptic transmission and explored how proteins within the Ras superfamily influence cellular communication in the nervous system.
For most students, this seems like a dream, an ideal pathway as an up-and-coming scientist. However, despite her deep involvement in research, Polzin admitted that she did not have a very clear career plan throughout all this.
“We were taught that really good scientists would remain in academia,” she said. “People who [were] thinking of anything outside of academia … [had] to hide it, because it was seen as second-class.”
This insight into the ever-developing scientific community had many professors in the room grinning and nodding their heads in agreements.
While pursuing her love for the sciences, Polzin found her love for writing. This is specifically uncommon among scientists who often dread writing manuscripts or grant proposals. However, she discovered her passion when diving deeper into the scientific topics she was writing about and expressing them in words. This gradual realization was what eventually led her to intellectual property law. This field works closely with scientists and creators in general to help defend their work through systems like patents and copyrights.
To transition into this field, she joined a law firm in Boston. Based on a common practice in biotech law, she worked for the firm as a “technology specialist” during the day and attended law school in the evenings, which was fully covered by her firm. For four years, she balanced a full-time position with law school from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. When reflecting on this experience, she was clear that “it’s not easy.” Yet, in hindsight, she recognizes the value of going to traditional law school full-time and being able to explore more sectors of law.
In the end, her efforts paid off and she practiced general intellectual property law with an emphasis on biotechnology at various companies and scales of work. Currently, at Scholar Rock, she works with scientists to make sure that their efforts translate to valuable property.
Polzin noted that the collaborations between her and the researchers start as early as before the experiments are conducted. During these early conversations, they explore different patents and literature to find certain aspects that can be patentable. Polzin stressed that, throughout this process, she relies heavily on her scientific knowledge with her law-based creative thinking. This is because she has to draw from her experience to predict how science might develop over the coming years and decades and help the patent be strong enough to last through it.
For students interested in intellectual property law, Polzin stressed the importance of having a creative mind to build off what’s in front of you. Another important skill she mentioned was being granular and detailed in your work.
“You really need to be able to dig deep … and know every little component of it, but at the same time while keeping a big picture,” she said.
However, above all, Polzin emphasized the significance of creating valuable relationships, especially as students.
“I want to be surrounded by people who are smarter than me and people who can disagree with me,” she said.
In looking toward the future, Polzin also discussed the role of artificial intelligence in intellectual property law as the line between invention and authorship is being questioned. Although this topic is still too novel to be fully understood, Polzin believes that human reasoning will still play a large role in interpreting results to better apply AI’s work.
For the professors, graduate students and undergraduates in attendance, Polzin showed the flexibility and utility a scientific background can bring to a legal perspective, while still working toward the ultimate goal of growing the world’s scientific understanding.
