Doing What He Loves: High-Tech Laboratory Science By Maritta Perry Grau
A few years ago, Dr. Tim Harris had an awakening of sorts. He found that because of the time needed to make a return on investment, the biotechnology industry is usually only interested in genetics and genomics as they relate to developing compounds for clinical use. He realized that to do what he liked, he would have to look beyond private enterprise.
“I like to get close to the science and contribute that way,” he said. “I'm a molecular biologist, a biochemist, and a technologist, and I'm fairly selective about the technology that I like [high-tech lab sciences]. There aren't many places on the planet where you can do that kind of thing at this level, which is why I'm here,” he said in a recent interview.
Dr. Harris joined SAIC-Frederick, Inc., in January as director of the Advanced Technology Program, formerly the Research Technology Program, SAIC-Frederick, Inc.
Yes, the program name has changed, having expanded to 12 laboratories, including the Nanotechnology Laboratory, the Core Genotyping Facility, and the Viral Oncology Section (VOS) Core Laboratory. “So it's got more strands to it than it did before. And, of course, ATP is a highly energetic molecule, given that ATP is the source of energy in the cell, so it's a nice juxtaposition of those two things. No one would accuse me of not being energetic,” Dr. Harris said with a grin.
Asked about his plans for the ATP, Dr. Harris responded that he would like to see ATP continue supporting NCI. In addition, he said, “The Work for Others program is extremely important in expanding the role of the ATP. But,” he cautioned, “we don't work with the other customers at the expense of the major customer, the NCI, and we need to keep up to date with our technology.”
Dr. Harris is excited about emerging technologies. “One of the initiatives we've got is to build a high-throughput sequencing center where you can sequence multiple kilobases of DNA per day on samples from many individuals focusing on the same region of different chromosomes from people with and without cancer. In these days of whole genome sequencing, this sounds like a trivial thing to do, but actually it is not,” he said. “Another key area is imaging for therapy and for diagnostics. Some of the technologies that we've got going here, from cellular imaging using confocal microscopy through to the characterization of nanoparticles, are a very important part of that,” he said.
Work Hard; Play Hard Dr. Harris brings high energy not only to his work but also to his play. For example, “Without any question, if I wasn't doing this, I would be racing sports cars and that's all I would do. Because I find it THE most exhilarating thing out there; it beats flying and SCUBA diving hands down. Nothing is better than driving cars fast on the track, as far as I'm concerned. It's absolutely fantastic!”
He's participated in Porsche racing schools in Canada , at Road Atlanta, and at Sebring (in Florida ). “I'm not that bad at it, I can go around the track pretty quickly. I'm not frightened of it,” he said, his eyes gleaming. “And it's all seat time. The more time you spend doing it, the better you get at it.” Classroom time in the driving schools is followed by time on the track, gradually learning how to speed up and get through the corners. Finally, you're allowed to chase around the track at your own speed, “until they black-flag you for going too fast,” which he admits has happened to him.
Asked about just how fast he was going when he was black-flagged, Dr. Harris replied, “Oh, you don't even look at the speedometer; you are too busy looking at where you are going.”
He added that “it's not the speed that's so exhilarating, it's the braking. The brakes are just fantastic! You could be doing over a hundred miles per hour and coming into a right angle bend, and you know you've got to slow down to about thirty miles per hour, but you've got to brake as late as you can because you want as much kinetic energy through the corner as you can get. I'd do it every weekend if I could,” he said, smiling.
And yes, Dr. Harris has his own Porsche. You'll probably be seeing it more often, now that the weather is turning a little warmer.
His affection for the car is obvious. “I don't take it out when it's snowy. I like to keep her inside. And I've got a heated towel rail in the garage, keeping her warm. It's an old 993 Targa, an unusual car; there are only 1,400 of them in the United States ,” Dr. Harris said.
Although racing Porsches is Dr. Harris's all-time favorite sport, he also enjoys flying. He has a private pilot's license. Always eager to try something new, he commented that next, “I'm going to learn to fly helicopters. Helicopters would be really fun, but they are difficult.”
It's in the Genes Dr. Harris comes from a family of scientists. Dr. Harris's mother is a retired geologist, and his sister a retired immunologist. He said that his late father, a chemist and biologist, “was a profound influence on me. He read Nature every week; I used to think, ‘Why does a guy want to read that? Must be interesting.' So I read it, and I found it interesting, too.” Dr. Harris's father was one of the first researchers to grow sarcoma virus in rat cells.
As a college student, Dr. Harris found “phage genetics really interesting. I wanted to learn more about how viruses worked, not with respect to bacteria, but with respect to human cells,” he said. He obtained his master's degree and Ph.D. almost in the same breath, at age 24. As part of an extended master's program, he did his final year project as a thesis for his PhD, finishing both degrees in 3 years. His thesis was on mRNA synthesis in Herpes virus-infected cells.
“I didn't want to take a long time to write it; I wanted to get it done and get going on my career,” he said. Ironically, he noted that as he began his career, he realized that rather than the degree, “It's what you do afterward that's important.”
His family includes his wife, three daughters, and one son. His eldest, 27, “is about to qualify as a general practitioner in the northeast of England . She will do that very well. She's looking forward to qualifying so she can earn some money,” he chuckled. His second daughter is an interior design consultant in Seattle , while his third daughter, 23, is in London at Kings' College, doing a master's degree in international relations. His son is a student at the University of California , Santa Cruz . “He's taking six months out to decide on his career—he wants to focus on communications and media and may have to transfer to get a degree in that. All have done well; they've done great,” he said with understandable fatherly pride.
Lifelong Interest in Genetics and Genomics Emigrating to the United States in 1993 after several years at Glaxo Group Research outside London , he was vice president of research and development, focusing on genetics and genomics, for Sequana ( San Diego , CA ), where his group was the first to “find a human disease susceptibility gene by association genetics, which is what the Core Genotyping Facility does now. And that's one of the reasons I'm here: I still have a great interest in genetics and genomics.”
In 1999, he founded Structural GenomiX, now a public company. One of the programs he initiated was to find inhibitors of Gleevec-resistant Bcr-Abl, the gene product that drives the proliferation of cells in chronic myelogenous leukemia. More recently, his company, Novasite, was looking for allosteric modulators of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR). Unfortunately for Novasite, venture capitalists no longer apportion as much of their life sciences investment funds to technologies as they did in the 1990s. “Where they used to invest perhaps 40% of their life sciences monies into life science technology, today, it's more like 4%,” he said.
Dr. Harris noted that while industry and big pharma are certainly different from NCI in their missions, the two entities share similarities in management infrastructures. “You've got to get work done within budget and find money for initiatives, but you mustn't stifle innovation as a result. The question is which initiatives to fund, and how do you use the money effectively, once you've found the initiatives you want to finance?
“There are a lot of interesting things going on here, more than meets the eye. I think I can bring a unique perspective, because I've been in the commercial sector for a long time, worked with the bankers, the venture capitalists, and in big pharma, too. I'm excited to be part of SAIC-Frederick, Inc., providing technical solutions to the NCI,” he concluded.
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Doing What He Loves: High-Tech Laboratory Science