Andrew Plump, MD ’95, PhD : Unraveling heart disease to push the science forward

Andrew Plump, MD ’95, PhD, will never forget the Saturday night in 1992 when he saw proof that he had indeed given heart disease to a mouse using genetically manipulated embryonic stem cells.

“The icing on the cake was that these mice developed atherosclerosis,” Dr. Plump recalls. Until then, mice had never shown any evidence of the very human condition of heart disease. “My model became the gold standard for studying the genetics and pharmacology of heart disease.”

Clearly a defining moment in his career, the experience at New York’s Rockefeller University was both a hard-earned lesson in the rigors of science and the ultimate preparation for his future in drug development. It also led to Dr. Plump’s nomination as one of The Innovators as his work has had far-reaching impacts for both his fellow scientists, medical doctors, and patients.

“If I knew at the beginning what I knew after the first year, I don’t know if I would have ever chosen to experiment with stem cells and mice” he says, looking back. “I was really trying to unravel disease biology, and in particular, cardiovascular disease, so I jumped in head‑first. I worked 16 hours a day. I learned and I learned and I learned. I failed and I failed and I failed. But eventually, I pushed the science forward.”

On leave from UCSF at the time, Dr. Plump considers this university instrumental in guiding him toward his discovery. He calls the day he was admitted to UCSF’s School of Medicine one of the proudest days of his life.

“This institution embraces diversity in a way that makes it great. It is the ability to stitch together not just science and medicine but science and medicine and policy and ethics and diversity to create an institution that really is leading-edge in terms of how we think of health care,” he says. “I believe in a collaborative approach to medicine. I learned that at UCSF.”

In the trenches, Dr. Plump also learned that the scientific process to find new drugs is a 10- to 15-year journey in its most accelerated form. But he calls that process his “sweet spot,” and now, as president of research and development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Plump leads teams in discovering medical treatments that put the patient first.

“I loved disruptive innovation, and I loved working together to create a focused set of objectives and then aligning people around those objectives,” he says. “I felt that the health care industry was the one place where I could stitch together all of the aspects of my training and do it in a way that was feasible. I discovered that what drives me is the potential to make a positive impact for patients.”     

Dr. Plump is the winner of a 2018 UCSF Campaign Alumni Award in "The Innovator" category. This award honors individuals whose work has led to unexpected findings that resulted in positive changes to the science or health care communities.