Alex Lituev is a man of many diverse talents, skills, and interests. We are very fortunate that he is the director of the KP Research Bank Biorepository.
Alex was born into a family that was far ahead of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curve. He was born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union. Both Alex’s mother and grandmother were practicing physicians and Alex’s dad was an industrial engineer.
From a young age, Alex knew his career would somehow follow in his family’s footsteps. He started out as a nurse practitioner working in intensive care units. But after a few years of providing patient care in ICUs, Alex decided to switch to medicine. He earned his medical degree at the Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University in Saint Petersburg that is named to honor the eminent scientist Ivan Pavlov.
After completing medical school, Alex worked as a physician, but he also continued to participate in scientific medical research. He worked as an investigator on several different types of projects, including international cardiology clinical trials from the late ’90s to early 2000s.
While Alex enjoyed providing patient care, it was medical research — especially clinical trials — that truly engaged him. He saw the potential these studies had for positively impacting huge numbers of people. Alex said, “If you do good research and you can help to develop some devices or diagnostic tests, you eventually are contributing to all of mankind, right?”
About 20 years ago, Alex and his family emigrated to the United States, and he continued his career developing and running clinical trials. While working in this field, Alex came to focus increasingly on the quality of samples and data. Without high-quality samples and data, improper drugs and devices could be developed that would fail to provide the intended support or cure for patients, or they could possibly harm patients.
Alex’s focus on the quality of samples and data truly serves the KP Research Bank. Recently, he and his staff (who process all the samples volunteered by participants) were intensely involved with the effort to genotype all the Research Bank’s samples. Alex and his team followed the exact protocols necessary to ensure success. Alex and his team achieved less than a 1 percent failure rate in processing the 400,000 samples, which is an impressive achievement. Additionally, Alex and his lab colleagues work closely with Kaiser Permanente scientists to ensure the samples they need for various IRB-approved research meet similar exacting standards.
Speaking of impressive achievements, 8 years ago Alex decided to start running to address mid-life health issues, such as weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol. While Alex started running on an elliptical trainer, he soon transitioned to running outside. Alex had never been a runner as a child or younger man, but he has clearly found his sport. Today, Alex is a marathon runner; he has run two marathons a year for the past several years, and this year he will be running four!
In addition to being a serious runner, Alex is also a scuba diver who’s done more than 100 dives all over the world. He enjoys cooking at home with his wife and daughter and finds that the recipes he follows are more forgiving than the exacting protocols he and his colleagues follow in the lab.
Looking to the future, Alex is very excited about the possibilities that go along with the Research Bank, especially given the diversity of the participants. He is encouraged that some of the research applications in process today could have positive impacts on KP members and the broader community. We’re grateful that Alex is so devoted to his work and colleagues in the Research Bank and look forward to his continued successes both inside and outside the lab.
