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Dr. Michèl Schummer,
Ph.D.
Scientist
MacroGenics
DWT is pleased to feature Michèl Schummer, Ph.D. as
our Life Sciences Inventor of the Month. Dr. Schummer has
crossed the borders of traditional biology to unite technology
development with cancer research. As a result of his efforts,
he has been instrumental in the development of a diagnostic
tool that has the potential to save numerous women's lives.
Dr. Schummer did his graduate work at the Universities of
Heidelberg, Hamburg and Genève, and earned a Ph.D.
in Molecular Biology from the University of Heidelberg. He
then took a position as a trainee in the Public Relations
office of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg
where he wrote for the magazine Einblick and worked
to create a computer database for journalists. In 1995, he
came to Seattle to begin a postdoctoral fellowship in the
laboratory of Dr. Leroy Hood at the Institute
for Systems Biology (ISB). He initially worked on stem
cells but switched to cancer research after a few months.
While one aspect of his research project focused on the discovery
of markers for ovarian tumors that could be used as diagnostic
tools for screening patients, the other related to technology
development.
As a senior scientist at ISB, Dr. Schummer was instrumental
in the development of DNA microarrays, a powerful new technology
that enables scientists to measure the interactions between
thousands of genes simultaneously in a single experiment.
DNA microarrays provide new approaches to cancer research
because they enable the observation of differences between
the pattern of gene expression of a cancer cell and that of
a normal cell. In addition, Dr. Schummer was involved in developing
analytic methods to process the complex data obtained from
microarrays. The information obtained from the microarrays
has elucidated many of the cellular pathways that are affected
by cancer as well as identified proteins that serve as markers
for cancer cells.
An important change in direction and focus for Dr. Schummer
came when he was contacted by Saul Rivkin, M.D., founder of
the Marsha
Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to the prevention, detection, and treatment
of ovarian cancer. The Marsha Rivkin center was started in
1994 by Dr. Rivkin, a medical oncologist at Swedish Medical
Center and member physician of the Swedish Cancer Institute,
in honor of his wife, Marsha Rivkin, who died of ovarian cancer.
Among American women, ovarian cancer is the fifth most common
cancer, and it is the leading cause of death from all types
of gynecologic cancer. This poses problems to medical practitioners
because the primary way to detect it is by biopsy, a method
not suitable for diagnostic screens due to its invasiveness.
As a result, there has been continued interest in the production
of new non-invasive diagnostic tools sensitive enough to detect
ovarian tumors as they are forming.
After meeting Dr. Rivkin and giving an early-morning seminar
to his research group, Dr. Schummer formed collaborations
with members of Pacific
Ovarian Cancer Research Consortium and the Marsha Rivkin
Center and began using the newly-developed DNA microarray
technology to identify biomarkers for ovarian cancer. However,
genetic material harvested from tumor cells and analyzed by
microarrays is a transient "snapshot" of the cell's
genetic repertoire that rapidly changes once the tissue is
removed from the patient. In order to generate reliable data
using the inherently-sensitive DNA microarrays with these
unstable samples, it was necessary for Dr. Schummer and Dr.
Rivkin to work out a procedure for handling tissue samples
to minimize variability in age, purity and composition. Together,
they developed a standard protocol that involves the presence
of a specially-trained researcher in the operating room while
the ovaries are being surgically removed. This protocol has
allowed Dr. Schummer to generate reproducible experimental
data that has been the foundation of a new approach to cancer
research.
With two critical components in place — a standardized
sampling procedure and the newly-developed technology to analyze
the samples — Dr. Schummer began screening tissue from
ovarian cancer patients to identify genes whose expression
was altered relative to normal cells. His screens identified
a number of interesting genes, but he chose initially to pursue
a gene designated HE4, a gene that encodes a protein known
to be involved in the maturation of sperm cells. The HE4 protein
was found to be an excellent biomarker for ovarian cancer
because it's expressed early in tumor formation, and also
is detectable in the bloodstream. Dr. Schummer has since identified
a number of other genes that exhibit altered expression in
ovarian cancer cells, which may later prove to be useful as
diagnostic tools. As a result of his work, a diagnostic test
kit capable of sensing the HE4 protein in serum is the subject
of a recently-filed patent application.
Dr. Schummer's collaborations with Pacific Ovarian Cancer
Research Consortium and the Marsha Rivkin Center have added
a new dimension to his research: it gave him the opportunity
to play a role in the lives of women who were battling ovarian
cancer. He spent a great deal of time talking to the patients,
explaining his research and the implications of the acquired
data. Dr. Schummer believes both he and the patients have
grown as a result of this process.
While Dr. Schummer continues to use innovative techniques
to identify proteins that serve as markers for cancer cells,
his focus has shifted from diagnostics, where the goal is
to detect markers in serum, to therapeutics, where the goal
is to identify proteins that remain on tumor cells and ultimately
to use these proteins to intervene in pathways that lead
to tumor formation. He currently is a scientist at MacroGenics,
a company that specializes in immunotherapeutics for cancer,
infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders.
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