Joseph Cummins - The Case for Interferon

Copyright 2020 by Dr. Joseph Cummins and Kent Heckenlively, JD

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Kai Texel

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-6550-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-6551-1

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

by Dr. Judy Mikovits

FOREWORD

Disruptive Ideas Are ALWAYS Fought by the Establishment

By Dr. Judy Mikovits

Its remarkable to realize that interferon marked my first entry into science more than forty years ago, and were still talking about it. In those decades Ive certainly seen a lot, from rampant misogyny to criminal attacks on new and promising therapies, but I think it stems from the same root cause, a fear of change.

In 1980, I was finishing my studiesa major in chemistry and a specialization in biologyat the University of Virginia. This is significant because only forty years ago there was not even a degree program in biochemistry. It was there I encountered my first misogynist dressed in a white lab coat.

An assistant professor voiced his objective to give failing grades to female premed students, as he believed women should not attend medical school. Most of my female classmates simply avoided his classes. But my degree program required three classes taught by this professor. Naive and fueled by my passion for natural products chemistry, I persisted.

My poor grades in two of these classes made it clear by my third year that I would not have the grades to go to medical school. In fact, I struggled to keep the grade point average necessary to keep my scholarships. The last class of my senior year was a biochemistry lab class required for all premed students, of which there were approximately five hundred.

In a lab, I was home. I am a lab rat. For my lab reports, I received the highest grade of all five hundred students. Yet to my horror, the final exam contained not questions about biochemistry labs, but the type of advanced organic chemistry questions that I had failed previously. I received the worst grade on that exam of all five hundred students, and instead of the A+ I had earned, I was given an A- in the class.

I protested to the dean of students, who was sympathetic. But because others had improved their grades granting them entrance into medical school, he could do nothing but reprimand the professor. In the future, he made it a requirement that final exams be given only on the subject matter of the class.

Shouldnt that have been the requirement all along?

I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I almost quit school only weeks before graduation on principle. I thank God for my friend Katie, who talked sense into me as I sat sobbing on the lawn in front of the rotunda wondering what happened to Thomas Jeffersons principles of rational thought and morality.

Apparently, they did not apply to women.

***

On March 31, 1980, I saw the cover of TIME magazine. It showed a droplet from a hypodermic needle and the words INTERFERON The IF Drug for Cancer.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) advertised for a protein chemist to purify interferon in the Washington Post over Memorial Day weekend only a week after graduation. I applied, and, on June 10, 1980, I started my dream job, purifying interferon at the NCI facility at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland.

Every step of the way I encountered misogyny and corruption. The male chemist I took over for was leaving to attend medical school. After I started, I received a formal letter stating that the technician job would pay only $10,000, rather than the $15,000 given to the previous male chemist. I was told the man had a family and that was why he was paid more for the same job. I vehemently protested, but to no avail.

I kept working anyway because I did not care about money. I was in heaven. I was doing critical scientific work that was helping people. We made the first interferon given to cancer patients, and some were doing very well. We also purified many cancer drugs from plants. I naively thought Id spend a few years making drugs and maybe then get an opportunity to go to medical school.

***

The events of 1982 would end that dream for me forever as the first human disease-causing retrovirus, HTLV-1, was isolated. My team was assigned to purify very large quantities of the virus, growing the virus in a 200-liter fermenter in the human cell line, HUT-102.

The problem was no one knew anything about the transmission of the virus, and the personnel were not provided any kind of safety precautions or training. Even more alarming to my supervisor and me, several of the female technicians were pregnant. We wrote a formal letter saying we could not complete the job without adequate safety precautions. A few weeks later I received a letter stating that my position had been eliminated. That is, that the NCI no longer needed a protein chemist.

They did not fire me. They simply said my position was part of a force reduction.

***

Devastated but not giving up, I attended a seminar about immune modulator proteins called cytokines. I learned a new program called Biological Response Modifiers was being started to develop cytokines as therapeutics for cancer.

This was the first translational research program in the country, taking what we learned in the lab and quickly transitioning as safely as possible to human trials.

I approached the scientist giving the seminar and asked if the program needed a protein chemist. I naively told him I thought those cytokines might be important and could possibly cure cancer. Fortunately, he did not laugh but invited me to his office to talk. After a wonderful discussion, he told me of an investigator who needed a technician and arranged an interview with Dr. Frank Ruscetti, which would be the start of our longtime collaboration.

***

In that first interview. Frank said, I see from your rsum that youve purified

Interleukin 2 and HTLV-1.

I replied, Yes.

Frank asked, So I suppose you read the literature about them?

Of course.

Can you tell me who wrote those papers?

I shrugged. Doesnt matter to me who wrote them. Its the science that matters.

I saw a flicker of anger run across Franks face. I did, he said.

Well thats the end of this job! I thought, certain Id blown it.

We proceeded to talk about the Boston Celtics basketball team, as there was a poster of Bill Russell and Larry Bird on his wall, and Ive always been something of a sports nut.