4/14/22, 11:12AM
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`George Yancopoulos: Doing Well by Trying to Do Good News and Research - Scientific American
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`HEALTH
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`George Yancopoulos: Doing Well by Trying to Do Good
`
`A1976 Westinghouse finalist goes from studying regeneration in a single-celled organism to chief
`scientific officer of Regeneron
`
`By Laura Vanderkam on October 6, 2008
`
`IN BRIEF
`
`His finalist year: 1976
`
`His fmalist project: Studying how organisms can regenerate parts of themselves
`
`What led to the project: As a little kid, George Yancopoulos was fascinated by such
`questions as how lizards can regrow their tails and how the body works. A New York City
`native whose parents had immigrated from Greece, "the whole reason I went to the Bronx
`High School of Science is that it had 'science' in the name," he says. He wanted to become
`a scientist.
`
`His finalist year: 1976
`
`His fmalist project: Studying how organisms can regenerate parts of themselves
`
`What led to the project: As a little kid, George Yancopoulos was fascinated by such
`questions as how lizards can regrow their tails and how the body works. A New York City
`native whose parents had immigrated from Greece, "the whole reason I went to the Bronx
`High School of Science is that it had 'science' in the name," he says. He wanted to become
`a scientist.
`
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`EXHIBIT
`WITNESS: I7
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`DATE:
`Anrae Wimberley, CSR 7778
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`George Yancopoulos: Doing Well by Trying to Do Good News and Research - Scientific American
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`He got a good start on that endeavor with his Westinghouse project, which occupied much
`of his high school career. He studied a single-celled organism called Blepharisma, which
`
`generally eats bacteria from decomposing vegetation. Parts of this organism function as a
`rudimentary digestive system; for instance, little external hairlike structures called cilia
`sweep bacteria into a cavity which functions as a mouth. Blepharisma can regenerate its
`digestive parts if they're destroyed, and Yancopoulos would tinker with the organism to
`study exactly how it was managing to accomplish this.
`
`The project fascinated him—which was a good thing, given his schedule. Because he lived
`in a different borough, Queens, a two-hour commute from the Bronx, he had to leave his
`house at 4 A.M. in order to start experiments around 6:30. The experiments would run
`while he was in class, and he'd check them after school before heading home. It made for
`some long days, but the lack of sleep paid off: He entered his project in the 1976
`Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and was named a finalist.
`
`The effect on his career: Yancopoulos's experience cemented his desire to become a
`scientist, but his father—who had immigrated to the U.S. where he worked as a furrier, a
`life insurance salesman and finally a financial planner to support his family—said he
`hadn't sacrificed just for George to become an underpaid academic researcher. He thought
`he should become a practicing doctor. There was, however, one scientist he told George
`that it would be all right to emulate: P. Roy Vagelos, who was at the time a rising star at
`
`the pharmaceutical giant Merck and later became its CEO. Vagelos just happened to be a
`doctor, and he just happened to be Greek.
`
`Yancopoulos earned an MD and PhD at Columbia University in biochemistry and
`molecular biophysics, finishing in 1987. He then accepted a junior faculty position,
`studying the immune system. Shortly thereafter, he won an eight-year grant worth well
`
`over $i million in today's money from the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust, a foundation
`that specialized in promoting young biomedical researchers. It was a great start for an
`academic career. He marched back to his father, trium phantly. His father pointed out that
`
`although he might have lots of money for lab equipment, his own salary was still about
`$35,000. Surely, if his work was important to people, he could earn more than that?
`
`Right around this time, Yancopoulos got a phone call from Leonard Schleifer, who was
`recruiting talent for a new biotechnology company. This start-up would try to figure out
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`ways to regrow nerv e .cells to potentially treat nervous system disorders such as
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`https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/georgeyancopoulos_westjnghouse/
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`George Yancopoulos: Doing Well by Trying to Do Good News and Research - Scientific American
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`Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases. Yancopoulos was intrigued. With his father's voice
`ringing in his ears and, aware of the financial rewards that getting in on the ground floor of
`a company could bring, he decided to join the company which became known as
`Regeneron.
`
`What he's doing now: Two decades later, Yancopoulos is now the chief scientific officer
`at Regeneron, headquartered in Westchester County, N.Y. Over the years, he's helped
`direct the company's research into a variety of areas beyond the original nervous system
`scope, from eye diseases to cancer. Their first drug, ARCALYST, was approved earlier this
`year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of an incredibly rare
`inflammatory condition—it affects about one in one million—known as the cryopyrin-
`
`associated periodic syndromes. It is also currently being tested as a treatment for gout.
`
`Yancopoulos oversees Regeneron's labs which, in addition to drugs, have developed what
`he calls "the most valuable mouse ever made." Bred to have immune systems that respond
`just like a human's would, these little critters can quickly show how the human body will
`react to different compounds.
`
`One aspect of Yancopoulos's life came full circle when, a few years into Regeneron's
`existence, the company's small staff of scientists realized that curing diseases might be
`slightly more difficult than simply regenerating cells. They decided that they needed to
`hire some veteran pharmaceutical leadership. Top on their list? Vagelos of Merck who, to
`their great surprise, agreed to take the chairman job. Yancopoulos and Vagelos have now
`been working together for 13 years.
`
`"George Yancopoulos is one of the most accomplished biomedical scientists I know,"
`Vagelos says. Not only did he lay the groundwork for Regeneron's first commercial
`product, "he has dedicated his career to improving human health through scientific
`discovery, and he will surely continue to succeed in this endeavor." He's not the only
`person who is impressed with Yancopoulos's discoveries—the latter was elected to the
`National Academy of Sciences in 2004, one of the top honors a U.S. scientist can earn.
`
`In recent years Yancopoulos has helped build a program at Westchester's Yorktown High
`School that gives students the opportunity to do the kind of research that he undertook for
`the Westinghouse competition many years ago. And he's also realized that his father was
`right: Research can be worth a lot more than $35,000. According to Regeneron's 2007
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`4/14/22, 11:12 AM
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`George Yancopoulos: Doing Well by Trying to Do Good News and Research - Scientific American
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`Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Yancopoulos earned $1.14 million in salary
`and bonus that year, and held 563,094 Regeneron shares, worth about $12 million.
`
`ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
`
`Recent Articles by Laura Vanderkam
`
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`
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`
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`ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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`https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/george-yancopoulos-westinghouse/
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