Methodical man: Ken Mohler

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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.

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