Thank you, Provost McGreevy.
Good morning, everyone! I am deeply honored to be here today to share this memorable moment with you all. I want to start by thanking President Rev. John Jenkins and the selection committee for bestowing on me an honorary degree and the opportunity to speak at this commencement ceremony at this prestigious University. I am especially excited since this is my first ever commencement! I graduated from the University of Barcelona, in the northeast of Spain, and we actually don’t have commencement ceremonies when we finish our degree. Based on that I never thought I would have the opportunity to be on stage and receive a degree like I have seen so many times on TV.
Today marks a really important milestone for everyone here — members of the class of 2024, their spouses, children and parents, families and friends who have supported the graduates through this journey and the faculty members who are finally able to kick their graduate students into the real world. Let’s give a big round of applause for all the 2024 graduates!
If you did it right, your time as graduate students would have been characterized by dedication, determination, and intellectual curiosity. If not, take your degree and run. I hope after years of digging deep into your chosen fields while challenging the existing paradigms, you have emerged as experts in your respective subjects. Now, I pass on the baton of saving the world to you all, so don’t mess it up, please! Today is not just about looking back at what you have achieved; it's about embracing the opportunities that the future brings. And don’t you worry, there will be many for as long as you are willing to take up the challenge they present.
While I am standing here with everyone’s attention, I am also going to share some life and professional lessons which may help you in your career. However, do remember there is more than one way to skin a “you know what” so my experience is for reference only and there is no money back guarantee!
Although I am not a big soccer fan, I am always reminded of the words by the famous Brazilian soccer player Pele: “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” For those who have no idea who Pele is, just Google it otherwise you can imagine the Taylor Swift of soccer. Perhaps it is not the best quote to use since I am giving away my age with it but Pele was at the pinnacle of soccer for so many years so he must have some good insights in how to succeed.
I graduated with a Ph.D. in pharmacy, many years ago, in the last millennium. I was where you are today except without the nice “cap and gown,” and I asked myself what I wanted to achieve in my life. I made the decision to do a postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh during which I dove into the unknown and began a challenging experience to develop the new field of fluorous chemistry. One thing that I learned is there is no guaranteed success, particularly when you try something completely new, because there is no roadmap to follow. When faced with an unprecedented challenge, always go back to the basics, and ask the critical questions. Slowly, one step at a time, you will be able to draw your own map. This is the first important lesson I learned and that I am sharing here with you today. This is an approach I applied throughout my career, and it has gotten me out of trouble, many, many, many times!
I had the aspiration to make medicines since I was very small, so the next logical chapter of my career was to employ organic chemistry to design and synthesize small molecules for therapeutic application. Once again, I was in the same shoes as some of you, I was looking for my first industrial position and let me tell you it was not easy at all. So don’t get discouraged, the right opportunity will present itself at the right time.
About 20 odd years ago, I began the journey at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in San Diego as part of a team that strived to develop therapies for people with cystic fibrosis. The idea was to use high throughput screening to identify starting molecules and then apply new computational and synthetic methodologies to design and prepare novel organic compounds that could eventually be developed into drugs. Sounds really simple, right? Well, lesson number two, there are no shortcuts in drug discovery or in any scientific venture. If it was easy, it would have already been done and ChatGPT would be able to tell you about it.
Cystic fibrosis, or CF for short, is a fatal genetic disease that affects nearly 100,000 children and adults in the world. The disease is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene. CFTR stands for cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene. Within the CF patient population, there are reports of over 2,000 different mutations. These mutations lead to a faulty gene, the ion transport across epithelial tissues is impaired. To simply put it, thick and sticky mucus clogs the airway, making it hard to breath and setting the stage for lung disease. This ultimately leads to a life expectancy in the mid-thirties. In other words, cystic fibrosis is as tough an opponent as a Notre Dame lineman.
When our journey started in CF, the idea that small molecules could restore the function of a mutant protein was considered both revolutionary, and also crazy. I remember presenting experimental data at a conference related to what ultimately became our first CF drug. I was, believe it or not, shouted off the stage because the experts did not believe in this approach. I thought that only happened in movies, but I guess my mother-in-law was right all along when she said: if it happens on TV, it can happen in real life. However, despite this episode, our team trusted the data which eventually guided us to the solution. That experience taught me that there are no crazy ideas as long as they don’t violate the law of physics or thermodynamics. So next time someone shrugs their shoulders about your idea, just tell them what I just told you. Remember, you must have faith in yourself, after all you are a graduate of Notre Dame.
And that takes me to lesson number 3, let the data be your guiding light. That’s the beauty of science. Do not let preconceived notions cloud your judgment or limit your imagination. As a famous sailor said: "You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."
The past 20 plus years have been both enjoyable and exciting in my professional career. I have had the honor to be part of the team that proved that our ideas could work, which has translated into the discovery of multiple medicines that target the underlying cause of CF. Over the years our team converted a dream into medicines that have the potential to treat approximately 90 percent of people with cystic fibrosis. So, lesson four, it is all about teamwork.
It takes a village to discover new medicines and get them to patients. This is why we often say that “drug discovery is the ultimate team sport.” Unless you are a theoretical mathematician who only needs a pencil and piece of paper, good teamwork is paramount to modern day success.
But success comes with a sense of responsibility. I remember when we discovered our first CF medicine — it required incredible collaboration and was a very exciting time for our team. However, we knew that it would only work for a small fraction of people with CF, and that we needed to find therapies that could work for everyone with the disease.
That brings me to lesson 5: be relentless. It took over 20 years to finally discover a triple combination therapy that has the potential to treat 90 percent of people with CF. Our team had to design and synthesize over 25,000 unique compounds. Each compound had to be purified, characterized, and tested, and the data from each compound had to be integrated into the design of the next one. Our company, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, empowered our diverse teams of scientists to “make the impossible possible,” discover these medicines, progress them through preclinical and clinical studies, and reach patients with the utmost sense of urgency. Let me tell you: discovering one drug is hard, two is even harder, so discovering three drugs that work together was almost unimaginable. And yet, we were determined to succeed.
And we are still not done. There are still approximately 10 percent of patients who do not respond to our CFTR modulators and require nucleic acid therapies, so we will continue this journey until we have a therapy for all people with CF. That is what being relentless means.
This experience made me realize that success is much bigger than what one individual can achieve in their career; it is the impact individuals have on the world around them. So never underestimate the power of your actions to shape the course of history whether it is through pursuing groundbreaking research, leading transformative change, or striving to make a difference in your community. As you get on this next chapter of your life, remember the values you have learned as graduate students: integrity, humility, and a commitment to excellence. And never forget the support system that has brought you to this moment — your family, friends, mentors, and colleagues who have supported you along the way.
Thank you, and congratulations again to the Notre Dame Graduate School class of 2024! Now go forth and conquer! Let’s go Irish!