A word with founder and president of Lumigen Inc., A. Paul Schaap
A. Paul Schaap, founder and president of Lumigen Inc., has made his mark on Wayne State's chemistry department. In addition to scholarship awards and endowments, it was a donation from Schaap and his wife, Carol, that led to the recent renovation of the chemistry building. Completed in 2012, it now boasts state-of-the-art laboratories and lecture facilities, a four-story atrium, and several innovation and collaboration areas. In gratitude, the building was renamed in his honor. Schaap also provided the funds needed to restore the building's instrument center, now known as the Lumigen Instrument Center.
Schaap has a long history with Wayne State. He joined the faculty in 1970 following his education at Hope College and Harvard, where he obtained his Ph.D. He worked with Wayne State for 30 years, and saw his work with luminescence-generating 1,2-dioxetanes have important application in medical diagnostics. To meet that need, he formed Lumigen with the support of Wayne State. Located in Southfield, Michigan, the company is now one of the world's largest suppliers of chemiluminescent reagents to the clinical immunodiagnostics market.
Schaap returned to Wayne State recently to talk about his illustrious career and current relationship with the university.
WSU: I understand your love for chemistry began as a child. What drew you to this field?
PS: One of my influences was the Gilbert Chemistry Sets. This is back when the sets had real experiments and chemicals, and things that were dangerous and things that are probably no longer put in the chemistry sets. But they were fun. The other thing that really intrigued me, like a lot of kids, was the luminescence of fireflies. I grew up in Indiana, where there were lots of fireflies, and we'd catch them and let them go, but it has always intrigued me how the firefly generated its luminescence. Once I got into high school and started taking science classes, I was particularly intrigued with chemistry and stimulated by a fantastic high school chemistry teacher, Clyde Mott. He was short in stature, always wore a white lab coat and developed experiments that were outside the textbook you might even call them research experiments.
WSU: How did college further prepare you for a career in chemistry?
PS: I spent three years at Hope College with Professor Douglas Neckers in his laboratory doing undergraduate research. It led to refereed publications. It was unbelievably exciting to see, for the first time, our results in national publications.
It was during my career at Harvard with Professor Paul Bartlett that I first got involved with these compounds called 1,2-dioxetanes, which generate luminescence and are believed to be the intermediate responsible for the luminescence of fireflies. As part of my research with him, I was able to make one of these dioxetanes for the first time. It didn't generate much luminescence, but it did some. And it was very unstable almost to the point of being explosive but it was the beginning of this whole area of research for me.
WSU: What brought you to Wayne State?
PS: Dr. Neckers knew Carl Johnson here on the faculty very well and said to Carl, "you ought to interview and take a look at this young man, Schaap." I came here and gave a lecture and interview and was offered a position as an assistant professor. That was in 1970.
When I was interviewing, I believe there were three universities in the entire country - only three - that had positions for organic chemistry faculty. One was at Wayne State. I interviewed at the other two, and before I had heard anything about the other two, I accepted this position. And it's strictly because of the quality of the faculty who were here the faculty who would become my colleagues. I just recognized that there was something special about the culture of this department.
WSU: How did your research here lead to the founding of Lumigen?
PS: My graduate work at Harvard with Professor Bartlett involved making one of these molecules, a dioxetane. It became the focus of my academic career here. And over the course of 16 years, collaborating with undergraduate students, graduate students and post-docs, we worked together to make many of these dioxetanes and study their properties. Some of them turned out to be a little more stable, some had a little more luminescence. But none of the molecules had all of the properties we desired. But after 16 years [July 1986], we were able to make the molecule that had all the properties that we wanted.
Additional derivatives of the material I demonstrated became useful in medical diagnostic tests. Companies began to get in touch with us asking for samples that they could use to test and see if it improved their assays. And then they said, 'let's find a way to obtain commercial quantities of your material.' That led me to form the company, Lumigen Inc., and then to approach the university about collaborating with us.
Wayne State became one of the key shareholders at the start of the company. They were kind enough to lease some of my laboratory space to me so that we could incubate the company in this building. This was before the days of TechTown and there just was no laboratory space anywhere for us to start the company. It was a very satisfying relationship. And they also were willing to take a chance on a faculty member myself who had no business experience, and give me and my colleagues a chance to commercialize the technology. And for that, I remain extremely grateful.
WSU: I understand some of your Wayne State students followed you to Lumigen.
PS: Yes. The key first members of the company were former graduate students of mine. In fact, the CEO, the director of Lumigen now, is a former Ph.D. of mine who was with my group in 1986 when all of this transpired. So he has now spent almost 30 years at Lumigen and is in charge of the company.
WSU: You've been a major supporter of Wayne State. Most notably, the chemistry building was renovated with substantial help from you. Why was this project so important to you?
PS: In the 30 years from when I started to when I retired, this building and the laboratories in particular had really begun to show their age. . . . It had become difficult to attract students, difficult to retain faculty members. So this building was in need of total renovation which, of course, was a very expensive proposition, but it needed to be done. Today, we're sitting in a chemistry building that is fully renovated, all the laboratories. They're all state of the art again. And, in addition, we have some spaces that we didn't have years ago. And within the building, there are some elements that are also new and very important. These are interaction areas. Each floor has a special area that's now set aside. They have windows and are dedicated to the interaction of students, faculty and post-docs from different groups so that they can come together and talk about science. This is the way modern science occurs; it's no longer stay in your own laboratory and be in what's called a 'silo,' but scientists are urged to collaborate, to interact, to develop joint programs.
WSU: You've also supported the Lumigen Instrument Center. Can you talk about the work that's been done there?
PS: That was formerly called the Central Instruments Center. It's a group of laboratories in the basement of the chemistry building that houses major instruments that are used by various faculty members. They are very expensive instruments and they are used by multiple investigators and investigators outside this university, from universities and companies in the area. However, when this renovation was being finished, the one area that was not going to be renovated was that instrument facility. So Carol and I said to the administration and to the department, 'If we chip in, perhaps you can find the funds to finish the renovation.' And that's what they did, and that's what led to its renaming as the Lumigen Instruments Center. It's now a world-class facility.
WSU: What are you most grateful for, looking back on your own education? What was essential to making you who you are today?
PS: That's an easy one - scholarships. I would not have been able to go to Hope College but for scholarships. My dad was a Presbyterian minister; it goes without saying they don't make a lot of money. And so to go to college was possible only because of scholarships from Hope College and from people I've never met.
That's at the heart of the philanthropy that Carol and I do; it's scholarships at all levels. It's trying to give back in a way that helped me.
WSU: Have you been able to see how specific students have benefited from those scholarships?
PS: Sure. We provide scholarships to students at an inner-city charter school who are graduating from the eighth grade, and it allows them to go onto really high-quality high schools. Some of these students are now graduating from these high schools and going on to college. I met a brother and a sister who are both now at Kalamazoo College and doing extremely well. That's the end result that you want to see.
WSU: You've been a supporter of Detroit's revitalization. What role do you think Wayne State can play in this important time in Detroit's history?
PS: Wayne State, of course, is and has been ever since it started, in the middle of Detroit. So it is linked to the city and it's fair to say that the city has benefited from the presence of Wayne State in its midst. I believe it's the intellectual center of the city of Detroit. I believe it is an unbelievably important economic engine for the city of Detroit. On the same hand, the city of Detroit has a huge impact on the quality of the existence of the university. The two institutions - the city and the university - are linked. So it's important that Wayne State do whatever it can to help the city of Detroit.
When the bankruptcy began and they started talking about having to sell pieces of art from the DIA, Carol and I just thought it would be an absolute travesty. It just would destroy the morale of the city if they had to sell just one piece of art. So when Judge Rosen was talking about the 'Grand Bargain,' which was to try and raise funds from major foundations for two purposes - to minimize the hurt to the pensioners and to provide support for the DIA and to shield the DIA from the city having to sell the DIA's treasures - I told Carol, 'I think this is going to be a tough sell to get these outside foundations to contribute.' So that led us to make our offer to sort of jump-start the Grand Bargain.
WSU: I believe Wayne State was the site of another pivotal moment for you - you met your wife here.
PS: That is correct. Carol was the secretary to the chairman when I applied and then later accepted the offer. And so Carol and I met here at Wayne State. That was a pivotal moment as well. We have been married for 38 years.
WSU: What would you tell someone who was interested in making a gift or donation to Wayne State?
PS: Find something at the university that you're passionate about. For me, it's chemistry, it's science, it's students. But for someone else, it might be engineering. It might be business. It might be dance. It might be medicine. But find something that you're excited about, that you're passionate about, and then find a way to make a difference. Whether it's to improve facilities, to set up scholarships, to set up endowed chairs, there are lots of ways to help and lots of ways to take what you're interested in to the next level. But make sure you start off by finding something that you're passionate about.
WSU: Is there one particular student you can think of, that you mentored, that you can say 'that's the reason why I became a professor"?
PS: I'm a little hesitant because each group of graduate students would have a particular student that was kind of the leader. But I think of one person in person in particular, his name is Dr. Richard Handley. Rich was an undergraduate student with me for two or three years and then stayed on and attained his Ph.D. with me and then also, when I started the company, he became one of the founding employees. He just retired a few months ago, but when he retired he was head of intellectual property at Lumigen. He transitioned from an undergraduate to a graduate to a very skilled patent agent and he is a wonderful scientist and very skilled in lots of ways. His Ph.D. dissertation was fantastic; I did nothing more than wave my hand over it.
This interview has been edited for journalistic style. A condensed version is available in the physical edition of Chemistry News.