User:Frankrgeorge/sandbox

THE "EARLY YEARS" Frank grew up two blocks outside of Oakland, California, in a blue-collar, middle-class family. His outstanding work ethic came from his hard-working father who never missed a day of work in his life. His father worked for a newspaper as the pressroom foreman, which meant he was always caught between his workers and management. Frank was a pretty bright kid, and watching this, he learned early that working for someone else did not seem like a good idea. Thus began his entrepreneurial spirit. He also learned the value of a dollar and later, whenever he could, he worked night shifts as a “grunt” worker at the newspaper company. He also lied about his age so he could get a job at a local urban Hispanic neighborhood store, where he refined his Spanish skills. These experiences further enhanced his entrepreneurial interests.

His “high level” intelligence was recognized early and he started school young. While he was the smartest kid in his classes, because he was younger he was also smaller and this led to him getting beat up a lot. He quickly learned to protect himself at school and that was helpful later as he had to ride the city bus to get to high school in one of the toughest areas of the country. While he used his brain to become “street smart” he also worked hard to improve his brawn. He ended up excelling in sports and was a 3-year high school varsity letterman. He was one of the better high school tennis players in Northern California and could have gone to college on an athletic scholarship, but became tugged in another direction by his other passion – music.

THE "MUSIC YEARS" Frank started his interest in music as a child watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. At the age of 13, he became the lead singer of his first garage band simply because everyone else was scared to try. After a few years of experience and coaching he had developed a well trained voice and was gaining recognition as a guitarist. Trying to “make it big” in the San Francisco music scene of the 70’s was, as he put it, “vicious” and he laughs about his “mixed reviews.” At one point, the head of the NoCal Musician’s Union told him that while he was very good, he shouldn’t get a big head because many managers and producers liked him simply because he “shows up sober and on time.” On the other hand, a local music expert commented that he could “sing like Robert Plant and play like Hendrix.”

Over time, Frank found himself performing with better and better bands in front of larger and larger audiences. He “grew up” very fast, but through it all he never lost his sense of integrity and didn’t succumb to the “temptations” of the rock scene. Indeed, he was realistic enough to understand that there were many talented artists around, but he was fairly successful because he was more determined than most. Eventually he gained regional success performing in venues from small clubs to arenas around the Bay area and Northern California. He associated and performed with many musicians who would go on to play in famous rock bands.

Realizing that just being a musician would not be enough for him, Frank started college at the University of California as a Pre-Med Major. He also learned that he was literally a genius and that he could do well in classes without much studying. But as time went on the challenges grew - The performing venues became larger, the classes became harder and the competition became more and more fierce. This was not a deterrent, however, and as one person wrote in his High School yearbook, “I know you’ll win your Nobel Prize AND your Gold Record.” Frank always dreamed big!

Finally realizing that he wanted to finish his education, Frank slowed down his music career and switched to performing solo in local clubs while earning his Bachelor’s degree. He was fascinated with the brain as the “final frontier” and pursued his interest in neuroscience. He slowly left music behind and few years later had a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Genetics, several important published papers on his resumé and an invite to join the elite at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.

THE "SCIENCE YEARS" After four years of postdoctoral research in neurology and genetics, Frank was recruited to the National Institutes of Health to establish a research center on the genetics and biochemistry of addiction. He was awarded the rare honor of being allowed to jointly have a faculty appointment at the University of Maryland. He became a highly successful and visible researcher and lecturer and gained a strong international reputation as a leading expert on addiction. He was frequently invited to speak at conferences around the world and his findings establishing significant genetic risk factors for addictions have become widely known and accepted. Realizing that addiction is just one of several crippling mental health disorders with related biological causes, he broadened his research to also work on other disorders including depression and the role of antioxidant-related chemicals in mental and physical health.

After six successful years at the National Institutes of Health, Frank decided to return to his Western roots and joined the University of New Mexico where he worked with and helped to develop their Addiction, Neuroscience and Medical School programs. There, he was also able to further develop his own research programs and, importantly, return to his love of and passion for teaching and mentoring students. By this time, Frank had compiled nearly two hundred published works and had received several million dollars in funding for his research. He was a well-liked teacher and had received several awards for his work while also having been invited to serve on a number of prestigious national and international scientific committees. After a few years, however, he found the academic environment there less than challenging and co-founded the South West Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies.

THE “BUSINESS YEARS” In 1995 Frank and a colleague moved the institute to Scottsdale, Arizona after being invited to join a business group there that aided the development and businesses of entrepreneurs. At that point, he realized that the best way to pursue his dreams was to create companies that could commercialize his ideas and work.

The first thing Frank did was to convert his Institute into a high technology research and drug development company called Amethyst Technologies. Over the next few years he and his team raised a few million dollars to investigate and develop the initial stages of new drugs and technologies for health care.

Over the next few years, Frank and his team grew the Company into a successful business and produced results that helped direct the development and use of new drugs for treating certain mental health disorders, including depression, alcoholism and drug abuse. In addition, work done at Amethyst Technologies ultimately caused that Company to be split into two very distinct businesses, each of which has been successful and are changing and improving thousands of people’s lives, but in very different ways. In essence, it is Frank's dream of a Gold Record and a Nobel Prize coming to fruition.

A MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH In 1996, Frank made an initial discovery that would lead to the creation of a new, exciting and effective treatment for wounds, especially large wounds that do not heal and lead to amputations or even death.

Back then, scientists were just learning how our bodies heal wounds. They discovered that there are chemical signals, called “growth factors,” that are present in the blood. We all know that when we get injured, one of the first things that happens is that the injured area swells. This is because the body quickly sends more liquid and blood to the area. It turns out that the blood is where the growth factors are and they need to go to the wounded area to tell the cells there to protect themselves and then to start healing. Amazingly, there are about 1,000 genes involved in healing any wound, even a simple cut. These genes make all the signals and chemicals we need to fix and heal wounds, but they need to all work in a specific pattern for the injury to heal correctly. Scientists also learned that the liquid around the wound contains many other chemicals and also cells that specifically come to wounded areas to clean up and remove dead or damaged cells. After that is done, the swelling goes away and the wound then starts to heal by growing new cells and tiny blood vessels to replace the injured ones, then forming a scab over the wound and finally, forming a scar and then slowly reducing the size of the scar over time.

Frank and other scientists figured out that wounds that were slow to heal, or that did not heal and got worse, were not getting the right signals to start the healing process. Many researchers tried to find a way to start the cells to heal, but the results were not all that good.