Keith Dionne SM '88, PhD '90
Pharma Head/Mormon Bishop Finds Challenge in Two Worlds
"When you trust people and encourage them to take on challenging problems, amazing things can happen," says Keith Dionne SM '88, PhD '90. This isn't idle talk. Dionne acts on the statement both as president and CEO of Alantos, a pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Mass., and Heidelberg, Germany—and as bishop in his church.
Dionne and his staff of forty at Alantos have taken an unusual industry risk—they aim to develop effective medications for osteoarthritis and type II diabetes. Both illnesses, which affect hundreds of millions of people, have hindered drug makers with their complex systemic imbalances. That's precisely why Dionne took them on.
"What I find most exciting about my work is looking for cures regardless of the pharmaceutical discovery process," he says. And he is unconcerned that no one has been able to develop a cure for osteoarthritis. "At MIT, I learned you don't need to lock yourself into what is assumed to be known. Instead, you can investigate what you think might be knowable. This mindset fundamentally changes how you look at knowledge—both gaining and advancing it."
Unlike previous efforts to treat osteoarthritis by non-specifically blocking an entire family of proteases, Alantos' drug targets and inhibits only MMP13, the protease believed to be responsible for joint cartilage degradation. "We think we can stop further progression of the disease," Dionne says. He'll know soon enough. Animal studies are underway. Clinical trials should start in 2006.
When he isn't working to cure physical illnesses, Dionne plays another, more spiritual role. He serves as bishop of Cambridge's Kendall Square 200-member congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—commonly called the Mormon Church.
"In biotech, we get used to dealing with a privileged group," notes Dionne. "But a local church community involves a full spectrum of people. Our congregation includes MIT and Harvard graduate students, as well as people who've been homeless on the streets of Cambridge." One of the counselors in the church fits into the latter group. "Wilbur has incredible depth of experience," says Dionne of the counselor. "He helps others see that a failed physics experiment doesn't mean a failed life."
By Eileen McCluskey
(First published in Technology Review, October 2005)
