Ever since he was young, Robert Toth, founder of medical imaging tech company Virbio Inc., wanted to be an entrepreneur. In his words, he always wanted to produce something for the world – be a producer, not a consumer. The concept of inventing always excited him, and so he decided to eventually shape a career out of that passion.
Years later, as he entered college, his excitement never left. He was ready to produce something for the world, and so he received his Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. Then, a step further, getting a Master’s in the same field. Then, under the professorship of Anant Madabhushi, he received his PhD, using the inspiration and aid of those around him to flourish.
The fruit of all that labor is Virbio Inc.
He’s the sole founder of the New Jersey-based company, and expects his technology to drive the medical imaging field forward. Essentially, the technology allows hospitals and surgeons to get a virtual preview of what a biopsy will look like before going in to cut any tissue in an endoscopy, colonoscopy, or esophagoscopy. The preview, Toth says, will allow these surgeons to get a much better understanding of the tissue before they operate.
The technology uses a combination of hardware (wires placed on the tissue site of the potential biopsy that light up the microstructure) and software (which uses a proprietary algorithm to virtually reconstruct what the biopsy will look like).
While Toth is the sole founder, he’s quick to thank the many people who helped bring this technology along. It took a team of people to develop and execute his vision; Toth put in the hard work, and his environment and support at Rutgers helped him thrive.
Anant Madabhushi, his Rutgers PhD advisor and mentor for nearly a decade, showed him the importance of focusing both on the big picture and the little details. Mark Pierce co-invented the technology and inspired Toth to see its commercial value. He also studied in great company, and countless professors pitched in both for inspiration and in teaching Toth how to market the technology. Most importantly are the medical doctors who have consistently been early adopters for the latest technology, and provide invaluable feedback, including Drs. Dan Sperling, Michael Feldman, and John Tomaszewski.
All these crucial supporters –professors, clinicians, classmates, mentors, tech licensing offices, etc.– lined up perfectly, giving Toth the experience both intellectually and entrepreneurially to move forward.
Since the idea and technology were developed at Rutgers, they own a portion of the intellectual property, and Toth has worked closely with the Office of Research Commercialization (ORC) to work out an agreement that works best for all parties involved.
Once Rutgers helped him fully crystallize his idea and sort through the complicated patent and licensing process, the technology was licensed to Virbio and Toth continued to move the company forward. So far, all funding for the venture has been out of his pocket; however, in Toth’s eyes, that’s not such a bad thing.
“It shows potential investors that you have skin in the game,” Toth said. “In my experience, investors are not averse or at the other side of the table. They’re looking for the best technology to develop.”
Currently, Toth spends much of his time gathering data, drawing on resources, and looking for seed funding.
He’s a big believer in trial by fire.
“I’d much rather be the guy climbing the tree rather than the guy looking up from the ground planning how to climb.”
Although the timeline is largely dependent on further development, intellectual property, engineering and regulatory pathways, Toth hopes to see Virbio’s technology in clinicians’ offices within the next 2-3 years. Since the technology is not yet ubiquitous, however, integrating it can be a large undertaking. Toth has hired both regulatory and quality consultants (including President of Vascular Sciences, Dr. Michael Drues), positions other industries don’t even have to worry about, to ease along the regulatory process and show Virbio’s clinical validity.
It’s taken a lot of work and many great minds to develop and license the technology, but ultimately, Toth’s career path has all been based around one word: freedom.
“I want the freedom to invent for myself, and the freedom to execute visions for the future in the most efficient way possible.”
