Welch Foundation honors pioneering chemists
When most people think of platinum, they’re more likely to envision a wedding ring than they are a cancer-fighting compound.
But platinum compounds are commonly used in the fight against cancer. One drug containing platinum, cisplatin, has proved incredibly effective in the treatment of testicular cancer.
Decades of research by Stephen J. Lippard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has helped unravel the complex chemistry of cisplatin, work that could yield the next game-changing drug in cancer treatment.
“It’s like a Trojan horse,” Lippard said of the next-generation platinum compound he has helped develop that is now in clinical trials. “The drug brings platinum into the cancer cell via the natural protein serum albumin. It’s a beautiful nanoparticle.”
On Monday, the Houstonbased Welch Foundation presented the Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry, one of the nation’s highest honors in the field, to Lippard and Harvard’s Richard H. Holm.
The $500,000 prize will be split between the two chemists, whose respective work has led to new insights about the biological function of metals, which do things such as convert oxygen to water and foster the flow of information in the brain.
“Both Dr. Holm and Dr. Lippard represent the intrin-
sic mission of The Welch Foundation — to improve the lives of others through the advancement of chemical research,” said Charles W. Tate, the foundation’s chairman and director. “In addition to their important contributions to the scientific and medical communities, they are both respected as remarkable mentors and teachers, helping to usher in future generations of scientists.”
The pair are widely considered to be the founding fathers of bioinorganic chemistry — Lippard literally wrote the book on the subject, a classic textbook published in the 1990s.
Pioneering work
Holm, the former head of Harvard’s chemistry department, is best known for his pioneering work in synthesizing complex natural materials to understand how they formed and how they function.
His early work focused on proteins that contain iron-sulfur clusters. Such proteins do everything from playing an important role in a cell’s energy-producing machinery to regulating gene expression.
His more recent work has focused on studying the chemistry of molybdenum, an incredibly abundant element found in both the Earth’s crust and its oceans.
“It is the most abundant metallic element is seawater,” said Holm, who has served as the Higgins Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Harvard since 2013. “It also shows up in enzymes as a catalytic component. I think we’ve done some pretty reasonable things with it. It’s a favorite element of mine.”
Holm and Lippard have known each other for decades, sharing an interest in the intersection of inorganic chemistry and biology.
Both also shared legendary Texas A&M University chemist F. Albert Cotton as a scientific adviser at MIT.
Where their careers diverge a bit is that Holm’s research is geared toward pure scientific inquiry while Lippard’s work has generated commercial applications.
Chief among them is a new drug being developed by Placon Therapeutics that just entered clinical trials.
Like cisplatin, it is a platinum-based compound. About two weeks ago, it was injected into the trial’s first patient.
“More than half the people that are treated for cancer today get a platinum compound, more than 50 percent,” said Lippard, the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry. “It’s incredible.”
Family tragedies
For Lippard, the work with the anti-cancer drugs is personal. In late 2013, he lost his wife Judy, a den mother to scores of young scientists, to endometrial cancer.
A lectureship was established at MIT in her honor shortly after her death and focuses on cancer research.
Another lectureship was inspired by another tragic event in Lippard’s life — the death of his 7-year-old son, Andrew, from a neurological disorder in 1973. Today, the Andrew Mark Lippard Lecture at Columbia University is considered one of the most pre-eminent lectures in neuroscience in the world.
Andrew’s death spurred Lippard to develop a keen interest in neuroscience, and his more recent work has focused on exploring the roles of zinc in brain function, delving into zinc’s role in controlling how the body processes sensory input signals like odor, smell and vision.
Lippard will be handing the reins of that research to another collaborator when he retires sometime next year and moves to Washington, D.C., to be closer to family.
An effective communicator — Lippard isn’t averse to using baseball analogies to explain chemical reactions — he plans to consult and write about pressing issues in science.
Welch Foundation officials say both Lippard and Holm represent the best in the field of chemistry.
“Steve Lippard and Dick Holm are pioneers in the field of bioinorganic chemistry,” said Peter B. Dervan, chairman of The Welch Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. “They have revealed the crucial role of metals in biology and human medicine, as well as inspired and mentored the next generation of researchers.”
The Welch Foundation is one of America’s largest private funding sources for basic chemical research. Since 1954, the organization has contributed more than $837 million to the advancement of chemistry through research grants, departmental programs, endowed chairs, and other special projects at educational institutions in Texas.
“They have revealed the crucial role of metals in biolog y and human medicine, as well as inspired and mentored the next generation of researchers.”
Peter B. Dervan, chairman of The Welch Foundation Scientific Advisory Board