Re: Methodical man: Ken Mohler

[Guest guest]

I am benefiting from his experiments, and I am truly grateful to him.

Sue

On Wednesday, May 5, 2004, at 01:28 PM, a wrote:

>

> Methodical man: Ken Mohler

>

> Accomplishment: Designed early experiments that established Enbrel as

> the

> first drug that can neutralize the cause of rheumatoid arthritis.

>

[Guest guest]

You¹re welcome June. He sure has changed my life.

a

> Thanks for posting this, a. We need more visionaries like this man.

> Millions of people will start life anew because of him.

>

> Hugs

> June

>

>

[Guest guest]

Loved this one, a. Way to go, Dr. Ken Mohler! I bet he's good at

chess, too.

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

[ ] Methodical man: Ken Mohler

> Posted on Tue, May. 04, 2004

>

> Methodical man: Ken Mohler

>

> BY LUKE TIMMERMAN

>

> The Seattle Times

>

> SEATTLE - (KRT) - Ken Mohler grew up a doctor's son in the Kansas cow

town

> of Abilene. He liked the idea of helping patients - except when

doctors felt

> helpless, out of treatment options. He was more attracted to the

can-do

> mentality of his grandfather, an entrepreneur, and finding ways to

apply it

> to medicine.

>

> It took most of his life to do it, starting with years of study in

> immunology and then a low-level job in a pharmaceutical company, but

he

> found a way. Mohler is one of the few scientists of his generation who

has

> created a breakthrough drug that has enabled bedridden patients to

return to

> their jobs, or play golf, without pain.

>

> Mohler, 48, did it at Immunex, one of Seattle's pioneering

biotechnology

> companies, and now runs research and development at a startup, Trubion

> Pharmaceuticals in Seattle.

>

> He speaks in a soft, just-the-facts monotone, no adjectives. He is

> unpretentious - he wears jeans and open-collar shirts to work, and

cracks

> that he's " a plodder. " He lives in Kitsap County and uses the quiet

time on

> the ferry to think science or sometimes unwind with beach reading.

>

> " With Ken, what you see is what you get, " said Mike Widmer, a former

boss.

> " I could look at his data and know it was solid. No hidden agendas, no

> cutting corners. I could rely on it. "

>

> Mohler and his team's work was not the visionary stuff of Nobel

Prizes. They

> built on work of others who theorized that if a molecule could soak up

one

> type of excess cells, it might stop a chain reaction that causes the

kind of

> crippling inflammation found in rheumatoid arthritis.

>

> But colleagues say Mohler has an equally rare and precious ability of

> showing, step by step, how an idea works. He spent the 1990s testing

the

> theories with lab experiments and imagining thousands of possible

dead-ends.

> Would stopping one type of cell, out of thousands, shut down

inflammation?

> Could the molecule bind tightly enough to cells? Was he aiming at the

wrong

> molecular bull's-eye?

>

> Mohler says it took him years to understand that the more questions

asked in

> an experiment, the muddier the answers got. Better to keep it simple

and to

> methodically pile up evidence on his way toward a goal.

>

> In the end, the answers were promising enough for Immunex to invest

millions

> in human testing of Enbrel, the genetically engineered molecule that

went on

> to relieve pain and suffering of more than 100,000 people with

rheumatoid

> arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

>

> It also made a fortune for Immunex, which later was acquired by Amgen.

> Enbrel has become one of the best-selling pharmaceuticals ever, with

up to

> $1.8 billion in sales this year, or about $5 million a day.

>

> ---

>

> Ken Mohler

>

> Age: 48

>

> Occupation: Senior vice president, research and development, Trubion

> Pharmaceuticals

>

> Education: University of Texas Southwestern, Ph.D. in immunology

>

> Distinguishing characteristic: An ability to envision thousands of

> experimental dead-ends and design tests around them.

>

> Accomplishment: Designed early experiments that established Enbrel as

the

> first drug that can neutralize the cause of rheumatoid arthritis.

> http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/8588107.htm?1c