UTHealth alumnus gives back to college
Scientist pledges $10.5 million to aid graduate students
In the world of bio-molecular research, breakthroughs are rare, and fame can be rarer still. Scientist and medical entrepreneur John Kopchick knows he is lucky to have found both in his lifetime.
So last week he pledged $10.5 million to the University of Texas MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, his alma mater, to help a new generation get to “Eureka!”
“I spent a wonderful four and a half years here. It’s wonderful coming back,” said Kopchick, 66, who now lives in Athens, Ohio, where he is a distinguished professor of molecular and cellular biology at Ohio University and directs the Growth, Diabetes and Obesity Section of the Edison Biotechnology Institute.
The announcement of his gift came at a ceremony at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The money will fund 15 yearly fellowships starting in
2018 to help graduate students pursue their education and research just as Kopchick did nearly four decades before. He earned his Ph.D. in 1980 on a fellowship.
In fact, he and his wife of 41 years, Charlene, were both the first in their families to attend college, which makes the journey all the more remarkable.
“This gift is very studentcentric,” he said in an interview before the ceremony, adding that one of the fellowships will be set aside for a student with a unique need, be it financial or some other challenge such as a physical disability.
“This is a statement about giving forward, and for me that is important,” said Charlene Kopchick, who is assistant dean of students for campus involvement at Ohio University. “Had John not gotten scholarships to come here, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
After leaving Houston, Kopchick worked in research for pharmaceutical companies before landing at Ohio University. In 1988, while working there, he identified a compound that inhibits the human growth hormone that can lead to a condition called acromegaly, more commonly known as gigantism.
His wife remembers the moment well.
“His excitement was contagious,” she said. “I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I knew it was something big.”
It was as if decidedly unscientific serendipity had taken him by the hand.
Working in the pharmaceutical industry, he probably had discovered 200 compounds that never once turned into a drug. And then, in a lab in Ohio, he had hit the one that would change his life — and the lives of patients.
But it would not be an easy road. With patent in hand and enthusiasm bursting, he made the rounds looking for a landing for his discovery. He found none.
“I went from elation to depression,” he said. “I was stomping around the world trying to get someone interested.”
Then one day, he was working out at the university and venting his frustration to a football coach who uttered the magic words: “I know a guy.”
That guy turned out to be a former football player, Rick Hawkins, who had found success in the business of clinical trials.
Hawkins remembers looking over Kopchick’s work and thinking: “This is really cool. He’s really got something.”
Together they formed a company and began the uphill climb of getting the drug developed and through the maze of Food and Drug Administration approval. It came in 2005. They sold their company, and the drug is now marketed by Pfizer under the name Somavert.
He has met some of the patients his discovery has helped.
“It’s humbling. It gives me chills,” he said. “The recognition is great, the money is great, but helping a patient is very, very special.”
And even as he passes the baton to the next generation of researchers, he is not quite ready to hang up his lab coat.
“We still have some things to do,” he said with a grin.