UP FRONT
NOW AVAILABLE...
What are the proudest moments of your career? And
have you had any major
disappointments?
I believe my proudest moments
have yet to come. My research
is to develop prototype drugs
– small molecules in their earliest stage of relevance to patients
with disease. I’ve spent the last 10
years designing, optimizing, and
biologically characterizing these
(hopefully) very special compounds. These molecules have,
just in the last two years, entered
human clinical testing as cancer
drugs. My greatest hope is that
children. On the work side, the
best part of my day is our laboratory’s group meeting. Our laboratory is unique for academia because we have, in one laboratory,
synthetic and organic chemists,
protein biochemists, cancer biologists, and computer scientists.
When we gather around the
meeting table, I am always blown
away by the scope of their ideas.
To have these young, unbiased,
fresh, brilliant minds together for
three hours dreaming up solutions to longstanding challenges
in cancer medicine is an amazing
opportunity.
I would encourage young
scientists to be patient. Many
young scientists want to
have an immediate impact
on medicine or scientific
literature – and rightly so.
However, they will have their
whole career to pursue that
lofty goal.
patients will benefit from these
substances. It’s a special privilege
to deliver an innovative new
chemical technology to my clinical colleagues, but it is far too
early to celebrate in any way.
My field of research involves
a lot of disappointments; for
every one successful molecule
that we move forward, we might
make 900 molecules that don’t
because of some unexpected toxicity, inactivity, or misstep. In a
way, anticipating, managing, and
learning from disappointment
are vital parts of drug discovery.
But these disappointments are far
outweighed by the exhilaration of
a new, active chemical entity. My
experience in science has outperformed my wildest expectations,
and I feel extremely fortunate
to have had so many wonderful opportunities and colleagues
throughout my career.
In a typical day, what is
your rose and what is your
thorn?
The best part of any day is when
I’m having breakfast with my
ASHClinicalNews.org
The possibilities for collaboration are incredible and unique in
our laboratory. We have tried to
exemplify a collaborative model
at the next level. For example, we
practice open science, where we
invite scientists from around the
world to work with the molecules
that we create, without restriction on their use. Through this
open-source work and through
discovery, we become closely
connected to scientists around
the world, from all different disciplines, and have learned about
new fields – and also have seen
our own field through their vantage points.
How do you spend your
time with your family?
Honestly, when I’m not working, I rush home. My wife Jennifer and I have three children:
our eight-year-old son and our
twin four-year-old daughters.
They’re great kids and time with
them, at this age, is so wonderful. There aren’t any hobbies
or activities that I find more
pleasurable, challenging, or
rewarding than spending time
with them.
My life outside of work is
best described as family life.
In a prior life, I quite liked to
play squash, snowboard, and
play and listen to live music;
today, life is a bit more organized around our family and
close friends. Now, though, I
get to share those interests with
my kids. My son, for instance,
is learning lacrosse, which I
used to play, and our little girls
learned to swim this summer.
The ASH Clinical
News iPad App!
The latest news and views
for the broader hematology/
oncology community, now
delivered to your iPad.
What was your childhood
like?
If you’ve seen the movies Ferris
Buller’s Day Off or Home Alone,
you have a sense of my upbringing. Like most John Hughes
movies set in suburban Chicago,
I had a fairly typical, but wonderful suburban childhood. We
lived in Highland Park, Illinois,
25 miles north of downtown
Chicago. I attended a public
school that was exceptional in
arts and sciences, played youth
sports, and terrorized our
neighborhood. It was, looking
back, exactly the type of childhood we’re trying to provide for
our kids.
What is one thing most
people don’t know about
you that they would be surprised to find out?
I’m a fairly open book, so it’s a
challenge to think of something
people haven’t figured out already. I’m sure my wife could
provide a whole list of things.
There’s nothing too edgy about
me – I wish there was!
If you could have any superpower, what would you
choose?
I would love to be able to see
into the future. I am just desperate to understand what the cure
for cancer looks like. I’m not
even sure that it looks like any of
the technologies we have access
to today: small molecules, biomolecules, or cell therapy. Beyond that, I’d like to know what
year it is when the Chicago Cubs
win the World Series. Hopefully,
sometime in my lifetime! ●
Download the
free app from the
iTunes App Store
ASH Clinical News
19