Maron Meyer
Northwest Asia Weekly
Kenneth Chien (photo by Jon Chase)
If you ask Kenneth Chien about the origin of the mRNA vaccine to suppress the pandemic, he will talk about his ancestors.
As one of the co-founders of Moderna Therapeutics, Chien is using stem cells and mRNA technology to regenerate myocardium. But he is unwilling to talk about his work. Instead, he asked Northwest Asia Weekly to interview his father. His father wrote a 300-page book about Jian’s family based on the childhood stories he told his sons.
“Their stories are much more interesting than mine,” said Jane, the research director of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. “Especially for your readers.”
This book and interviews with Jane, his father, and his brothers provide a long academic family history, using Western technology to solve today’s problems. However, the family prestige that the two sons had heard of since childhood also set a high standard for Jane, which prompted him to enter a field he might not choose.
As a young physician and scientist, he was initially attracted to neurology.
“The brain is the frontier,” he said.
However, on the contrary, he found that cardiology is a field in which molecular science is rarely conducted. Most work on the heart involves physiological interventions, such as catheterization, simply moving valves or adding tubes.
“I think maybe I can be that person,” he said.
Finally, he developed a method to identify and cultivate different types of heart cells. Although mRNA technology has existed for decades, it has never been used to make drugs for humans. The core technology called “messenger” RNA involves injecting new instructions into the cell, telling it to make new proteins, which can be used to build new cells or weapons against invaders. But Chien uses it to repair damaged heart tissue.
In other uses, such as reversing blood flow problems in diabetic patients, he uses mouse stem cells to grow primary heart cells, which can produce actual beating heart cells. From there, he produced a single layer of cells, which he described as similar to a “heart patch.” From there, he developed parts of the human heart, and recently synthesized human heart tissue.
When the pandemic hits, Moderna is ready to use mRNA technology to deal with the coronavirus.
Derek Rossi, another professor at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute where Chien worked, initially approached him, hoping to establish Moderna ten years ago. Rossi was the first to use mRNA to reprogram adult cells into stem cells, which can be transformed into other cells.
Now, under the leadership of CEO Stephane Bancel, they have undergone a huge shift, from using mRNA to develop drugs to focusing on launching vaccines.
“Everything is there, a huge gamble, like trying to transfer an aircraft carrier,” Jane said.
Family traits
From left: Kenneth, Helen, Luther and David Chien (provided: Luther and David Chien)
Lying on the hospital bed, facing the prospect of 98-year-old surgery, Jane’s father still spoke loud, deep, and powerful, almost shouting in the wind.
He was born in China, escaped the Japanese occupation, came to Harvard on a scholarship, and then went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before he finished his degree, his studies were interrupted by a semester in the U.S. Navy and eventually became one of DuPont’s senior scientists.
As a father, he established a scoring system for his two sons, and he would yell loudly when they were unexpected.
“They never know what will happen,” he said.
Kenneth’s father, Luther Chien, said that he also lived an unwavering moral life and set an example for his sons.
“I never lie, steal, or pursue other women,” he said.
Kenneth said that his youngest son’s achievements also proved his father’s upbringing style.
David Chien received a Ph.D. in energy management and policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and continues to lead the development of the federal government’s policy on hybrid electric vehicles and the first greenhouse gas estimate in the United States. Now he is the Deputy Executive Director of Policy for the Federal Aviation Administration.
In his book “When East and West or Yin and Yang merge”, Luther also talked about his relationship with children in activities such as antique hunting. During one such outing, he bought a large filing cabinet, tied it to the roof of the van, and drove off along the highway. When it flew off and landed in the middle of the road, angering other drivers, his sons told him to stop and assess the situation.
“They thought it was interesting,” he wrote.
In the interview, Kenneth talked affectionately about his father’s creativity.
“My father actually built a house that used to be on an urban garbage dump, believe it or not. It’s located in this area by the lake, so he filled it up and renovated the whole thing. So we have a lot of space to run. Come and go,” he said.
It was in the woods behind the house that Jane found herself.
“So, the other guy and I, just a neighbor kid on a bicycle, became interested in chemistry, and we made gunpowder in the backyard,” he said. “Fortunately, we didn’t blow up anything.”
His father, a church leader, also sent him to a Quaker school, where a teacher noticed his scientific talent and asked him to go home one summer with a bag full of science fiction books. At first he was surprised to receive such documents from the teacher, but soon he ate them during the break.
But it is his past stories that have created a legacy and an example for him, even though they have become incarnations that he will never be able to surpass as they grow up.
A climax story
It began with Kenneth’s great-grandfather, who was 3 years old in 1841, when a civil war forced his family to flee. According to Luther’s research, he spent 11 years as a refugee in extreme difficulties.
When the great-grandfather Jian Zengqi (Qian Zengqi) returned to China at the age of 14, he was too old to prepare for the civil service examination. This was the only way to get rid of poverty. But he did it anyway. He eventually went to Beijing, where he worked as a domestic servant for many years, eating leftovers all day, dragging wood and water, and sleeping on his books at night to avoid being stolen.
He passed the imperial examination and became the chief consultant of China’s ongoing self-improvement plan, which aims to use Western technology to defend against foreign invaders.
“He is a very smart man,” Kenneth said.
His son, Kenneth’s grandfather, was the first of his generation to receive a scholarship to attend Harvard. At Harvard, he met and married a Welsh immigrant, and then he entered Harvard Business School to continue his studies.
After returning to China with his foreign wife, he eventually became the deputy finance minister in the new Republican government under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek. After the dissolution of the Republic in 1911, he served as the chief opium embargoger or “drug lord” to dictator Yuan Shikai.
Kenneth remembers that his grandfather was an old man living in his father’s basement, who was exiled from China after the next government came to power.
“He would go out to write calligraphy and even do ordinary things. He would wear a blue silk cotton coat and cloth shoes as you might imagine. It was very traditional. But every November, he would put on a Western-style coat, tie and board. Get on the train from Philadelphia to Boston. I’m still a kid and I always want to know where he is going. Of course he always goes to every Harvard-Yale football game in the end,” he said.
After his parents left China, Luther has been taking care of his parents. He was born in Beijing and his father worked for the government. He became the second generation to receive a Harvard scholarship and also experienced a tragic escape. During the Japanese occupation, his parents stayed behind and arranged for him the passage of the last ship to go to sea before the Pacific War. During his voyage across the ocean, he endured the threat of Japanese submarines and stayed in Manila for several months, where he survived with little or no money. He arrived at Cambridge so late that his scholarship had been given to another student. He had to partially work through the school.
Kenneth was born in New Jersey and is the third generation heir to Harvard in his family. At first, he planned to become a doctor. But one summer, he accidentally participated in a research and obtained a doctorate. Then he went back and completed his doctor of medicine.
His decades of research have kept him optimistic in a very gloomy period. Even after the pandemic, Chien believes that biotechnology will change the world.
“Before Covid, if you ask ordinary people which technology has the greatest impact on their lives, they might say IT-you know the iPhone, the Internet, streaming media. There is a complete ecosystem around IT. But they may not Speaking of biotechnology,” he said. “And I think after Covid, if there is any glimmer of hope, I’m not sure if there is any. I think the average person’s appreciation of biotechnology is much higher than before Covid. I hope this is an appreciation of the value of science.”
You can contact Mahlon in the following ways info@nwaweekly.com.
This health series is funded by the Washington Department of Health, which has no editorial opinions or supervision of this content.
