Post subject: Student entrepreneur in search of cure for cancer

Conducting cancer research, owning and operating a business and being the president of an engineering society are a few of the things Anthony Schwartz, or “Moose,” is accomplishing before graduating from Ohio University.

“I have as much fun as possible while accomplishing the most,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz, a senior computer engineering major, conducts cancer research at a laboratory at the Konneker Research Laboratories at The Ridges. Under the direction of Kelly McCall, a post-doctoral fellow, his research began about a year ago with melanoma, breast and prostate cancer.

OU teamed up with colleagues at the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, the University of Washington and the National Institutes of Health to research a drug as a potential new treatment for cancer, McCall said.

“Basically, our lab has developed a compound that significantly decreases tumor size in mice with melanoma,” Schwartz said.

Malignant melanoma patients have a very poor prognosis for survival, McCall said. An estimated 7,770 deaths from the disease occurred this year, according to www.emedicine.com.

The developing drug is an inhibitor to treat autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, said Leonard Kohn, a senior distinguished research scientist in the Edison Biotechnology Institute and the J. O. Watson Endowed Chair for Diabetes Research in the OU College of Osteopathic Medicine, who did background work to create the potential drug. Professors questioned whether the drug would be applicable to cancer.

“We believe diabetes, which is an autoimmune/inflammatory disease, has the same mechanisms related to disease expression as some cancers,” Kohn said.

Before the drug becomes public, it will need to go through more extensive animal trials, which will take at least five years, Kohn said.

OU and Interthyr Corporation fund this research. The mice for one study cost $1,500, Schwartz said. OU is the only university conducting that particular type of research.

As Schwartz’s mentor, McCall analyzes data once it is collected and prepares it into a manuscript for future publication. McCall expects the melanoma research findings to be published in six months to a year, with the breast and prostate cancer studies to follow.

Schwartz must check the mice every day and spends in excess of 20 hours a week at the laboratory, he said.

McCall and Kohn both enjoy working with Schwartz, comparing his functioning in the research process to that of a graduate student, Kohn said.

“He’s extremely intelligent, very easy-going, easy to work with and a phenomenal student,” McCall said.

Schwartz won the Provost Undergraduate Research Award on Tuesday, which he will use to fund breast cancer research after the second phase of his melanoma study, which is set to begin soon.

Along with extensive research in the medical field, Schwartz runs his own company, XTELL Networks, which provides electronic medical records and data services for medical facilities. He founded the company about five years ago as a spin-off of another company. XTELL Networks recently took over four of the university’s medical clinics in Belpre, Coolville, Athens and Nelsonville. Schwartz’s company is working on an electronic medical record chart, which can include all of a patient’s information on a computer with no need for paper, he said.

In his spare time, Schwartz finds time to have fun. He is the president of the engineering fraternity Theta Tau, which does professional-related as well as social activities.

Schwartz, a Parkersburg, W.Va., native, plans to go into the biomedical engineering graduate program after he graduates in 2007. He also will continue to do research on this “extremely promising cancer treatment,” he said.

Aaron