When most people imagine the world of a research scientist, they envision pristine white lab coats hunched over Petri dishes and microscopes, quietly making advancements that change the course of humankind.
What they don’t imagine is a field driven by fierce competition consisting of deep and bitter rivalries, and a tremendous drive to be the first to make a major discovery.
Frank McCormick, director of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, likes to be first. He likes to win, and he relishes a good competition.
He paved the way for a radically new way of researching cancer, developed a drug that’s boosted cure rates among kidney and liver cancer patients, and oversaw the construction of a research facility that stands to forever change the way researchers of disciplines interact.
“A lot of people think competition in science is bad,” McCormick said. “That we should all work together and be friends. The other side is fierce competition drives progress.”
Originally from England, the 59-year-old earned his biochemistry doctorate at Cambridge, where he discovered that he loved trying to figure out mechanisms of different cellular processes. Back then, researchers were using viral proteins to cause cancer in cell systems to better understand how the process worked. That puzzle eventually lead McCormick to change his field to research, and in 1981, parlayed into a collaboration with a professor from UC Berkeley on a particular protein that was involved in cancer.
At UCSF, McCormick pioneered what’s called translational research, which in the world of drug discovery is a lot like working backwards.
Rather than solely taking ideas from the lab and testing them in the clinic, or going from bench to bedside, translational research means starting at the bed and then moving to the bench. This type of research involves analyzing the reasons why particular patients respond to drugs, “and how one person’s tumor is different from another, or how your genes are different from someone else’s genes that might make you more or less susceptible to cancer,” he explained.
Last month, he oversaw the official opening of the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, a $35 million, 164,000-square-foot facility in Mission Bay. More than just a state-of-the-art building, the center was designed to foster consistent interaction between its researchers. A central staircase and an open atrium makes it possible for different groups of people to bump into one another on a daily basis, a structural feat that is more radical than one might think.
“The places I’ve been before, you’d hardly ever go down to the floor below because you have to go through some dark stairwell in the back or take the elevator or something,” McCormick said. “You never see them except on the way in or out of the building. Here you see people coming and going all the time.”
More important than just bumping into each other in the café is the chance to regularly exchange their ideas, discoveries and advances.
“Anything which can increase flow of ideas and thinking and discussion really does have a tangible effect on the quality of research,” he said.
McCormick took the helm of UCSF’s cancer research center in 1998, and under his leadership, the research facility has earned the esteemed recognition of “comprehensive cancer center.”
This seemingly innocuous distinction from the National Cancer Institute is not easily won — the Diller Center is the only one in Northern California to have done so. It means McCormick’s facility has demonstrated excellence in research, clinical trials and different components of research.
McCormick’s crowning achievement, however, has been the development of Nexavar, an FDA-approved drug for treatment of kidney cancer and the only drug approved for treatment of liver cancer.
During the late ’80s, McCormick bore witness to a huge transition in the field of cancer research: Now that scientists knew enough about the genes that caused cancer, it was time to develop a drug that could cure it.
McCormick founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals in 1992. He developed Nexavar, and served as the company’s chief scientific officer until 1996.
But for all the progress the biologist made in the field of cancer research, things have only gotten a lot more complicated.
Researchers no longer think that cancer is “caused by a few genes in reverse,” but that it’s hundreds of genes and complicatedcombinations that contribute to the disease, which makes finding the cure even more daunting.
It’s a challenge, however, that McCormick continues to accept.
“For the first time ever, I think I can now see a strategy for eliminating cancer … in the next generation’s lifetime. I don’t think we could’ve said that truthfully even five or 10 years ago,” McCormick said. “I was pessimistic [about] having a real impact other than just extending life two months here and there. Now I can see a way forward, so I feel much more optimistic.”
Search for a cure isn’t the only race McCormick loves
Frank McCormick has dedicated his career to working tirelessly to save lives. But in his downtime, he prefers to live dangerously.
During his off hours, McCormick can often be found behind the wheel at the race track, driving cars at 130 to 150 mph around sharp turns and corners.
The scientist always harbored a lifelong love of the sport, but didn’t actually get behind the wheel until he was 45. Fourteen years ago, a couple of his friends invited McCormick to test a car out on a proper racing course.
“Once I got on the track and sort of got a feel for the actual act of racing, or driving fast around a racetrack, I got the bug.”
He started renting cars for weekend racing, finally buying his own: a Pro Formula Mazda with a 260-horsepower engine.
But big, slick tires combined with speed and tricky corners can make for dangerous conditions and, on occasion, a crash.
“I’ve done a lot of car damage, but that’s easy to fix,” McCormick said.
One of his favorite tracks is Laguna Seca in Monterey, because a portion of the course known as “the corkscrew” causes McCormick’s car to torpedo into a thrilling sheer vertical drop.
He’s won his age group several times, but the thrill of victory is another thing. McCormick simply brushes it off, the inevitable curse of being an overachiever.
“It’s never enough though really. If you’re old, you’re never going to win the top race,” he joked. “It’s a consolation prize to do OK in the older group.”
Asked if it’s possible he’s too hard on himself, he responded: “Damn right.”
Frank McCormick
Lives: South of Market, in a loft situated directly behind the Eagle Tavern.
Favorite movie: “2046.” “It’s about a writer who has moved from various parts of Singapore to China [during] his life and left people he loved behind. In the future he imagines a place called 2046 … a future where no one ever leaves. “
Favorite book: “Once in Europa,” by John Berger (also his favorite author).
Favorite television show: “Formula One racing. I don’t watch anything else.”
Last book read: “A Life Decoded” by J. Craig Venter. “I read it because Craig Venter was our keynote speaker at the opening ceremony for this building. He’s an interesting character. He’s a Vietnam vet and self-styled sort of maverick. He was the first person to sequence his own genome and responsible for the effort to sequence human DNA for the first time.“
Idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon? “At home with my girlfriend, music, books and a bit of Xbox … or racing, that’s always a good afternoon.”
Favorite San Francisco restaurant: Ozumo or Chez Panisse Café (in Berkeley)
If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be? “The temptation is to say Kate Moss. I’ll stick with Kate Moss … or maybe a racing person would be better. Someone who runs a top Formula One racing team. Maybe Kenny Reiter, he’s one of the top drivers on the planet.”
What is your biggest fear? “Well, I guess being English, there’s a general fear of embarrassment; a fear of messing up.”
What talent would you most like to have? “A better ear for music. I love music, I just can’t play an instrument and don’t really appreciate it as much as I’d like. But I love listening to it. I feel the beauty of music, but I don’t understand it as much as I’d like.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement? “Developing the drug Nexavar. I went to the clinical meeting where the data was presented and it clearly worked. People survived longer based on this drug alone. That was one of the highlights of my research career.”
UCSF Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building
Opening day: June 2, 2009
Cost: $135 million
Size: Five stories, 163,865 gross square feet
Population: Houses approximately 250 cancer scientists and their teams working in 33 labs. Eventually the building will house about 400 scientists.
Location: 1450 Third Street on the UCSF Mission Bay campus
