Manchester High School Alumni Update: Chris Wiethoff, Class of 1991
submitted by Susan Fielder, MHS Alumni Association
The Alumni Association contacted former Manchester graduate, Chris Wiethoff, from the class of 1991. While at MHS, Chris was a member of the wrestling and golf teams, participated in the Academic Games and played the French Horn in Concert and Marching Bands. Chris currently lives in Zionsville, Indiana with his wife, MHS alum and high school sweetheart Laure (Fielder); his son, Nate; daughter, Claire; and dog, Maisy Jane. His education and career have taken him from Michigan to the west coast and back, most recently settling in the Hoosier State. The story of this path begins below.
After high school graduation, Chris obtained his Doctor of Pharmacy from University of Michigan. While at U of M, he received a fellowship to conduct research, studying novel methods to deliver drugs through the skin (imagine taking your heart medicine through a patch rather than as pills twice a day). This initial exposure helped Chris to realize that scientific research was his calling. So he continued to work in the lab while he finished his coursework and clinical training. He graduated cum laude from the College of Pharmacy in 1997 with a Pharm.D., but not before publishing his first scientific paper.
With his mind set on a career in scientific research, Chris explored Ph.D. programs in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. The University of Kansas is home to one of the best Ph.D. progams in the field and Chris was lucky to find an excellent mentor there whose research interests were a match. So, he packed up his belongings and, with (his now fiancé) Laure and cat Molly in tow, he moved to Lawrence, Kansas to start Graduate School. Lawrence was a fun college town, much smaller than Ann Arbor, and only a 45-minute drive to Kansas City and some of the country’s best barbecue.
Kansas shaped Chris’ professional career immensely. His dissertation work was in the field of gene therapy. In the 1990s gene therapy was heralded as the cure for every disease known to man, from cardiovascular disease, to cancer, to rare genetic disorders. Gene therapy requires delivery of genes, pieces of DNA, into the cells of patients to correct or treat a disease. The major limitation preventing a more widespread use of gene therapy was, and continues to be, our ability to efficiently deliver genes into a patient’s cells. This delivery problem was the focus of Chris’ dissertation work. He published numerous manuscripts on the topic and his dissertation was selected by the University as the best in his graduating class. Chris received his Ph.D. in 2002. Laure got a few things in Kansas as well; a handsome new husband, and an Educational Specialist degree from one of the nation’s top schools of Education.
Determined to understand how genes could be more easily delivered into cells, Chris crossed over into the scientific field of virology for his post-doctoral studies. Viruses have evolved over hundreds of millions of years to very efficiently deliver their genetic material into our cells. Chris was determined to understand the mechanisms of this process. So he packed up his belongings, his wife and his cat, and drove them across the country to begin post-doctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. La Jolla was a hotbed of biomedical research. Here Chris solved a scientific mystery that had eluded the field for 30+ years. How do certain viruses enter our cells? His published findings led to the revision of virology textbooks and helped identify new targets for antiviral drugs.
As exciting as these discoveries were, they paled in comparison to the excitement Chris felt welcoming his son Nate into the world. Says Chris, “Working alternating days and nights in the lab every day to care for Nate while Laure worked part time as a school psychologist was perhaps one of the most challenging and rewarding times in my life.”
And while Southern California offered a wonderful lifestyle, where one could surf in the morning and be downhill skiing later that afternoon, Chris had dragged his family as far west as he could. It was time to head back to the Midwest. So he began looking for academic positions, eager to start his own lab, continue the work he had started, and train a new generation of Ph.D. students.
Chris’ search for a faculty position took him to the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago in 2005, where he joined the faculty of Microbiology and Immunology. “As I write this, Michigan, Kansas and Loyola are all in the NCAA Men’s Basketball final four….Go Blue!” Starting his own lab was as chaotic as it was exciting. “While I was privy to the most detailed molecular descriptions of how viruses work, I had absolutely no training in how to fund and manage a research lab!” Chris commented.
At Loyola, Chris became an expert in the field of virology. He enjoyed lecturing to medical students and graduate students, being invited to give seminars throughout the US and Europe, and collaborating with some truly amazing scientists. He also enjoyed welcoming his daughter, Claire, into the world.
Eventually, his research returned to his roots and he began to use what he had learned about how viruses deliver their genes into our cells to make better vaccines. Chris started re-engineering the virus that causes the common cold into vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Ultimately, Chris remembered the advice given to him from his Department Chair during graduate school–to change focus every 10 years. Start with fresh ideas. Reinvigorate your mind. With that advice, and a desire to make a bigger impact on human health, Chris transitioned into research development within the pharmaceutical industry. So in 2016 Chris, with the help of actual movers this time, packed up his family and moved to the Indianapolis area to join Eli Lilly & Company. Now Chris works to develop novel medicines to treat Alzheimer’s Disease, cancer and autoimmune disorders (like psoriasis or lupus).
Compared to his faculty position, working as educator, scientist and administrator, Chris finds this new position gives him more time to enjoy his children’s activities. Nate keeps active playing soccer and wrestling, while also playing trumpet in concert and jazz bands. Claire is busy with basketball, swimming, choir and Girl Scouts. Laure manages to keep them all on track, while she starts a practice offering psychological evaluation services to schools throughout central Indiana.
Chris remembers his time at MHS fondly. He wishes this year’s graduates the very best. As far as advice for them, Chris offers, “Do what interests you. You’ll find success in that which you love.”
The Manchester Alumni Banquet is scheduled for June 16th . Please consider a financial donation to the scholarship fund. As Chris’ life experiences inspire future graduates, your financial support will help them achieve their goals. Checks can be sent to MHS Alumni Association, PO Box 254, Manchester, MI 48158.
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