Dr. Smith will strengthen XenoSTART’s position as a premier drug development partner, translating PDX-driven insights into faster, more confident oncology development decisions.
The START Center for Cancer Research (“START”), today announced the appointment of Frank Smith, PhD, MBA, as President of XenoSTART, its preclinical business unit. In this role, Dr. Smith will oversee XenoSTART’s operations, further strengthen its project delivery and quality systems, and provide R&D leadership to scale the business and reinforce its position as a leading preclinical partner to oncology drug developers worldwide.
As President, Dr. Smith will oversee the XenoSTART business unit and set its strategic vision, ensuring alignment with START’s broader mission of accelerating the development of novel anti-cancer therapies. He will be responsible for building and developing a best-in-class team; leading laboratory operations, documentation, and logistics; and ensuring strong vendor and supply-chain management. Dr. Smith will focus on implementing and leveraging key performance indicators, deploying technology to enhance efficiency, managing budgets, and driving long-term facility and staffing plans.
“We are thrilled to welcome Frank as President of XenoSTART,” said Nick Slack, MBE, Chairman and CEO of START. “XenoSTART is a critical link between drug discovery and the clinic. Frank brings the operational discipline to scale our patient-derived xenograft (PDX) platform, a strong commitment to quality, and the leadership skills to inspire excellence from our XenoSTART team. I’m confident he will further position XenoSTART as the leading provider of patient-derived translational research in oncology.”
Dr. Smith brings a broad blend of scientific, operational, and strategic experience to XenoSTART. He earned a BS in Biology from Rowan University, an MS in Biology from West Chester University, a PhD in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology from Temple University, and an MBA from Villanova University. He joins XenoSTART following leadership roles at Charles River, GSK, and Champions Oncology, where he helped build and grow complex preclinical organizations serving global biopharma customers.
“XenoSTART sits at the forefront of oncology drug development,” said Dr. Smith. “We have access to deeply characterized PDX models, a global early-phase clinical network for specimen collection, and a preclinical platform built to reflect real-world disease. My focus will be on scaling that platform by advancing our operations, investing in our people, and partnering even more closely with sponsors to help them answer the most important questions sooner. Ultimately, every operational improvement we make is about one thing: getting new therapies to patients faster.”
About XenoSTART
XenoSTART is an industry-leading oncology translational research organization dedicated to advancing drug development through clinically relevant preclinical cancer models. Built on START’s global network of community-based oncology centers, XenoSTART offers one of the largest and most deeply characterized catalogs of PDX models in the industry, with more than 2,800 models spanning a broad range of tumor types and disease stages. All of its models are sourced from patients enrolled in clinical trials at START sites and are annotated with rich clinical histories, molecular profiling, and in vivo drug response data, enabling sponsors to design smarter studies, test combinations that mirror real-world biology, and generate decision-quality data earlier in development. Learn more at https://startresearch.com/preclinical.
About The START Center for Cancer Research
Deeply rooted in community oncology centers globally, The START Center for Cancer Research provides access to specialized preclinical and early-phase clinical trials of novel anti-cancer agents. START clinical trial sites have conducted more than 1,000 early-phase clinical trials, including for 50 therapies that were approved by the FDA or EMA. START represents the world’s largest roster of early-phase principal investigators across its 15 clinical trial sites. Committed to accelerating passage from trials to treatments, START delivers hope to patients, families, and physicians around the world. Learn more at STARTresearch.com.
