Ken Lembach

1. Retired? What %? 1. Yes. 100%
2. Have you downsized? 2. Yes
3. How many different homes since finishing school? 3. Four
4. Have you lived in a property on Nat'l Historic Reg? 4. No
5. Have you owned/now own a "classic" car? 5. No
6. Favorite sport/game now 6. Spectator: football; participant: downhill skiing
7. Favorite pastime now 7. Nature photography, combined with travel & hiking
8. How are you saving the Earth? 8. Drive a Prius; considering solar power for the house; support several environmental organizations
9. Important Cause you support 9. Third World countries (e.g., Carter Center, FINCA)
10. If Life is Perseverance and Luck - for you it has been 10. Luck % = 10% Perseverance % = 90%
11. Have you run for Office? 11. No
12. Do you write letters to the Editor? 12. No
13. Lead/Led an Organization? 13. No organization, but led Exploratory Research, Bayer Biotech for more than 10 years
14. Personal Description in Life 14. Researcher
15. Worst fashion fad since 1957 For men - bell bottoms For women - ?
16. New word since 1957 that you use all the time - Google
17. Best invention since 1957 - large in scope - Personal computer
18. Best gadget since 1957 - iPod
19. Best medical breakthrough since 1957 - drug: statins, medical products: artificial joints
20. Your participation in the Computer revolution - just a user of the technology

Post-IHS Bio

From IHS, I went on to MIT, initially majoring in Chem E, but at the end of my sophomore year, I began the transition to my long term interest in "medical research" by focusing on biology courses. As a senior, I transferred into Biology as my major, completing two years in one. In 1961, I went on to graduate work in Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. During the period when my career plans were changing, I met my partner for life, the former Regis Mann, an RN from the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing, and we were married in 1965. I completed my PhD a year later and we moved to Boston where I continued postdoctoral studies at MIT, and where our first daughter, Lara, was born in 1968.

A year later, I finally got a real job as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. Our second daughter, Aimee, was born in 1971. My most satisfying accomplishment during the Vanderbilt years was the discovery that mouse Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), a small protein identified about 10 years earlier by one of my colleagues, Stanley Cohen (Nobel laureate in 1982), could stimulate human skin cells grown in the lab to proliferate. This led to a simple and powerful experimental system for studying EGF biology and resulted in the identification of human EGF and the cell surface receptor mediating its biological activity, which has been successfully exploited for breast cancer therapy (Herceptin). As a teacher, I was known as the professor who expected first year med students to think on exams (and not just memorize!). After 10 years of trying unsuccessfully to convince students that the ability to think and biochemistry were relevant to their medical training, I decided on a career change.

Therefore, in 1979, despite having tenure as an Associate Professor, I made the unusual move from academia into industry, joining the Biological Products Division of Bayer AG in Berkeley, CA. As a result of the emerging AIDS epidemic, my early research unexpectedly focused on methods to ensure virus-safe products. This work was particularly challenging, since at the time little was known of the causative agent and we had to collaborate with leaders in the field for virus and assays. The outcome of this work was the discovery of a patented method for inactivating a broad spectrum of pathogens in protein products, including HIV and hepatitis virus. In 1981-82, I spent a sabbatical year at Bayer's Pharmaceutical Research Center in Germany. Living in Europe was a great and memorable experience for the entire family, with the opportunity to learn about various cultures, including first hand experience behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany.

During much of my industrial career, I was a key participant in the transition of the Berkeley site into Bayer's Biotechnology Center, which identifies and develops therapeutic protein products using genetic engineering. For several years, I was the Director of Exploratory Research, with responsibility for up to 40 scientists, including 15 PhDs. The most satisfying success was the development of recombinant Factor VIII, a protein marketed for the life-long treatment of hemophilia A. This was an especially difficult project due to the large size of Factor VIII, which remains today the most complex biotechnology product on the market. With overall responsibility for the cell and molecular biology aspects of the project, I represented Bayer in interactions with the FDA and the regulatory agencies of the European Union and Japan in these areas. Since I am most at home in a research lab, all this was personally quite onerous.

In 1999, after more than 15 years as a department head or director, I returned to the lab as a Research Fellow and initiated a new program in Stem Cell Research. This was an exciting and challenging field, especially for someone who graduated from high school in 1957! Realizing that most of my colleagues were younger than my children, I decided to retire in 2002 to spend more quality time with Regis, my best friend and partner in life for now nearly 42 years. We moved from the San Francisco Bay area to the Sierra foothills to downsize and to be near the mountains, as we are avid hikers and skiers. Our daughters remain in the Bay area, where Lara is a pediatrician in private practice and Aimee is an RN in charge of a Medical-Surgical floor. They have presented us with three grandchildren to date. It is, of course, most gratifying of all to meet successfully the challenges of life with the same woman and to see our daughters doing well in their own lives.