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Quite an accomplishment for any scientist, much less an undergraduate. Doane had made an antibody that, as Diamond says, "may be a viable treatment option against WNV in humans."
"Potentially such antibodies could be used in the treatment or prophylaxis of disease caused by a specific virus," says Robert B. Tesh, who studies WNV and other viruses at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "Since there is yet no vaccine against or treatment for West Nile virus infection, the Wash. U. antibodies are of special interest, but this technology could be used to produce antibodies against other viral diseases as well."
The research was published in the May issue of Nature Medicine, with Doane as the fourth author (among 14). The antibody has been licensed to Rockville, Maryland-based MacroGenics, Inc., which is now trying to bring it to clinical trials. Doane stands to collect royalties if the antibody is commercialized successfully. 
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Weiskotten
Christopher Doane's interest in medicine is due in no small part to the influence of his great grandfather, Herman Weiskotten, a nationally prominent physician and medical school administrator in the early 20th century. As fate would have it, Weiskotten was a consultant to Howard Hughes, and when HHMI was founded in 1953 he was named one of the initial four members of its advisory board. Two years later, Weiskotten followed HHMI to its new headquarters in Miami, where he served on the board of directors for the next 10 years, retiring in 1965. Weiskotten died in 1972, before Doane was born.
Though Doane never met his great grandfather, he keeps Weiskotten's picture in his bedroom and talks glowingly about him. He keeps two leather-bound volumes of thank-you notes Weiskotten received at retirement from the deans of major medical schools and medical leaders around the world.
Doane earned his HHMI fellowship without any special consideration due to his great grandfather. And he plans a career in dentistry rather than medicine. Regardless, he still appreciates the link his research represents with Weiskotten's considerable contributions to HHMI. "I am just amazed a person could do so much and help so many people in his lifetime," says Doane, rightfully pleased that circumstances have enabled him to follow a path that his great grandfather first helped define.
— Doug Main
Photo: Courtesy of the HHMI Archive
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