From Science Fiction to Saving Lives ST. XAVIER HIGH SCHOOL BOARD member Tim Schroeder (’75) doesn’t know Matt Jacobson (’94), but there’s a good chance his company had a hand in the success of the kidney donation Jacobson made to his uncle. CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services—Schroeder’s company—is at the forefront of developing the drugs making such transplants possible. CTI began 11 years ago after Schroeder left a biotechnology company he co-founded in the San Francisco Bay Area that went public. Now in Cincinnati, Schroeder works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, helping guide their ideas through studies and testing, through the maze of federal regulatory controls and safely to the public. “Some of (the ideas) are so science fiction you can’t imagine at first, but eventually they become the standard, the preferred therapy for a given problem,” Schroeder said. “My eight years of Jesuit education here and at XU really influenced how I look at things. We’re lucky we get right in the middle of it, working with people at the beginning of an idea and seeing it through the other end to the patients. You think of the east and west coasts when you think of some of the best pharmaceutical development, so it’s neat this company headquartered in Cincinnati has had such an impact on the field. “Everybody has a job, but we’re fortunate. We’re getting paid to do what we love, we can—on a day-today basis like very few other professions—see how our work really impacts people. We have people who are passionate about making other people’s lives better.” Transplant patients are a special passion for Schroeder, whose company has no less than a dozen people with family members who have either given or received organs or are transplant professionals themselves. “It’s the only area of medicine that depends on the generosity of others,” he said. “If you break your arm or you need a heart bypass, you find a doctor who can do the job and get it done. But with transplants, it really is a testament to society that people are as altruistic as they are.” Still, Schroeder said we have a long way to go before everyone who needs a transplant of some kind can get one. More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for organs, while only about 20,000 transplants are performed every year. “The more we can educate people about the need, the better we will be,” he said. “People can literally give the gift of life to another. I’d encourage everyone to be an organ donor.” Several members of the S. X family have done just that, notably Kevin Le (see sidebar on page 17), but also alumnus T.J. Bradley (’08), who donated stem cells to his sister Natalie during her courageous fight with cancer last year. St. X athletic director John Sullivan did the same for his sister in Pittsburgh; she recently passed the five-year milestone cancer free. Assistant Principal Craig Maliborski’s wife, Amy, successfully donated one of her kidneys to a patient in February.
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and attending St. X. No easy choice at any age. “When I came to Cincinnati, not everyone in my family understood,” Jake said. “Joe and his girlfriend (Diana)—now his wife—they did. They understood the dreams I had for myself. They understood I wanted to have an opportunity at a great education and an opportunity to make something of myself. I wanted to go to St. X more than anything and it meant everything to me. It was the turning point in my life, giving me the chance to grow academically and spiritually. “When I made the mission trip to Ivanhoe, Virginia, that wasn’t very far from where we lived and they didn’t think it was a big deal to come visit me while we were on the trip. Looking back, nobody else did either. They came to my graduation. They came to everything. They were the first people who showed me what it meant to live the magis—to be open to being present in the moment, to being open to looking at a bigger picture. That support from them has been everything to me.” Jake took that support and continued his Jesuit education at St. Louis University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in theology. He has a master’s degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University in Chicago, where he now works as a chaplain and a coordinator in