Local scientist aims to unlock medical potential of marijuana

Business

Discussion

The Salem News has a real-name policy for commenting. Users may sign in using the Facebook Connect tool above the comments field. Once your first comment is posted by a moderator, all future comments will post automatically. If you prefer not to use Facebook, send an e-mail with your comments user name (which must be the same as your real name), city or town, street address and daytime phone number to comments@salemnews.com. A staff member will contact you directly to confirm your identity. It may take a day or two before you can post comments. Only your user name will be public. All users are required to follow our rules for commenting, which can be found here.

comments powered by Disqus

September 14, 2011

Genome expert founds firm, posts genetic info online

By Jesse Roman Staff writer The Salem News Wed Sep 14, 2011, 05:00 AM EDT

MARBLEHEAD — Cannabis is a fascinating plant — and no, not necessarily for the reasons you're thinking.

We all know about THC, the chemical compound that produces the "high," but it's the plant's other 80-or-so compounds that have researchers and the pharmaceutical industry feeling euphoric.

"The science has been stigmatized and silenced over the years," says 38-year-old Kevin McKernan, a Marblehead resident on the forefront of the medicinal marijuana scientific revolution.

"When people learn about this (medical potential), their first reaction is surprise; their second reaction is anger" that more is not being done.

Two months ago, McKernan founded Medicinal Genomics out of his house in Marblehead. The company is so new and so small that it still doesn't have an office. Even so, McKernan made a huge splash last month by announcing he had successfully sequenced the genome of two cannabis strains.

He quickly posted one of the sequences online, for the first time giving scientists all over the world access to genetic information that could lead to the development of drugs that help with diabetes, obesity, multiple sclerosis, depression, cancer, pain management and much more. Early research indicates that certain compounds in the plant can actually shrink tumors and that other compounds are effective in combating at least 20 separate diseases.

The potential has not even begun to be tapped, because federal laws have stymied research; only 14 researchers in the country have been given permission to possess it for clinical trials. McKernan has relied on a lab in Amsterdam, Holland, where the plant is legal, to extract the DNA needed for sequencing.

"In a war on cancer, you need more than 14 researchers, no matter how good they are," McKernan says. "We wanted to put the sequencing data online in the hope that it would float all boats. ... You don't need to handle the plant to comb through the sequence and start hunting for genes and mutations."

There are about 85 cannabinoids, a type of chemical compound, in the plant, as well as 200 different terpenes — a particular type of molecule — and possibly four receptors in the human body that can interact with them. That means there's a limitless matrix of combinations that scientists have begun charting in hopes of finding sequences that can combat an array of different ailments.

"It is totally complex plant," McKernan said. "There's a lifetime of work to be done in this field."

The genome race

Because of the notorious reputation of the plant on which McKernan has aimed his sights, it would be easy to dismiss him as some stoner geneticist satisfying his own curiosities.

That, however, would be ignoring the fact that he's one of the top DNA sequencers in the business. It wouldn't be a stretch to call him a sequencing savant.

In 1996, only in his early 20s and fresh out of undergraduate school at Emory University, McKernan was tapped to lead a research and development team at MIT working on the Human Genome Project. The publicly funded project turned into a much-publicized race against privately funded Celera Corp. to be the first to complete the human genome. Finally, in 2000, President Bill Clinton announced a rough draft of the genome had been completed and called the race a tie. The entire human genome was finally published in 2003.

"I got an ulcer in that race," McKernan says, only half-joking. "For three years running, I was working until 1 a.m. every night in the lab."

In 1998, he had a chance to earn his doctorate at the University of Washington, but by then he was right in the middle of the genome race and he deferred to stay in Boston. MIT gave him the chance to take classes toward his degree there, but that lasted only a few months.

"I was learning more in the lab than I possibly could reading outdated textbooks," he said.

Those years in the lab transformed McKernan from a gifted young scientist to an expert in the field. As part of the project, he designed and patented a better way of purifying DNA, and a method of sequencing DNA that was 100,000 times faster than traditional methods. He took those inventions to the bank.

"By 2000 I said, 'I'm done with this. I need to start my own company,'" he said.

He and his wife, Rebecca, moved to Marblehead and founded DNA purification and sequencing companies, Agencourt and Agencourt Personal Genomics, based in the Cummings Center in Beverly. It soon became evident that the superior technology he developed at MIT would destroy the competition, and he sold his companies for more than $100 million each. He then went to work for one of the companies that bought him out.

Just beginning

McKernan's interest in the medicinal value of cannabis began shortly after a friend handed him research papers showing that compounds within the plant could shrink tumors. He immediately saw the potential and jumped in.

Twenty to 30 people have worked with McKernan on the project as outside consultants, and he plans to hire a few full-time employees and open an office in Marblehead soon. For now, he works from home sifting through pages of genetic data and talking to investors, journalists and other scientists about his unique project. There's still one very important factor he hasn't figured out.

"Exactly how we're going to make money is the question of the hour," McKernan says. "It's interesting science, but who is going to pay for it?"

His technology could be useful in helping the federal government regulate and keep track of where licensed growers and distributors are getting their product — but that's assuming the federal government eventually legalizes the use of medicinal marijuana, which it currently does not. Or it could be useful tool for drug companies to ensure that, once they do grow a strain of marijuana ideal for treating a certain ailment, the strain remains pure and isn't contaminated by cross-pollination.

"Right now, it's a labor of love," he said, "but I know there is a revenue source in there somewhere."

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Business

Search Results

Discussion

Local scientist aims to unlock medical potential of marijuana

Genome expert founds firm, posts genetic info online

Site Map

Reader Access