Daniel Schmitt

WHEELING — From The Friendly City to Wall Street, Wheeling native Daniel M. Schmitt knows the path to success can take many twists and turns.

Schmitt, 62, who is president and chief executive officer of Actuate Therapeutics Inc. in Chicago, will join family and members of his company’s team to ring the bell marking the start of trading on Wall Street at 9:30 a.m. Friday in New York City. The event will mark yet another milestone in Actuate’s research and clinical trials in the treatment of pancreatic cancer and Ewing sarcoma.

A Wheeling native and product of The Linsly School, Schmitt received his M.B.A and a B.S. in chemistry from West Virginia University, and has held research positions affiliated with the National Foundation for Cancer Research and at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

With more than 30 years of industry experience in operations management, new product development and business development, Schmitt has held senior executive positions in both large pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies, including Fujisawa, Searle/Pharmacia, and Ilex Oncology.

He founded Actuate in 2015, employing a team of top notch clinicians in the fields of science, chemistry, quality assurance, finances and clinical operations. Together, this team has been working on the tools needed to combat the effects of certain cancers and to extend the lives of those afflicted.

According to Actuate’s website, “Actuate’s lead drug, elraglusib (a novel GSK-3 inhibitor), targets multiple molecular pathways in cancer that are involved in promoting tumor growth and resistance to conventional cancer drugs such as chemotherapy. Elraglusib is also emerging as a mediator of anti-tumor immunity through the inhibition of multiple immune checkpoints and the regulation of immune cell function.”

Schmitt said while a cure for cancer is always on the minds of researchers and scientists, “there are 265 things that are cancer.” Actuate works to develop pathways of targeting bad cells without harming the good cells. The results have shown very minimal side effects from the drugs developed by Actuate.

“My super power is surrounding myself with people who are much smarter than me. This is a vocation … literally 60 hours a week.

“We are in the late mid-stage of clinical trials. We have completed enrollment in mid-stage trials with 286 patients from across the United States and Canada. What we are doing is increasing the time of overall survival.”

One such site is located at WVU Hospital in Morgantown. Actuate’s financial investors are located in Texas.

During a phone interview this week, Schmitt said his interest in chemistry and pharmaceuticals came early at the heels of his veterinarian father, the late Dr. Clement Schmitt. “I was working in his clinic when I was 8 years old. All of us boys had to work. Part of that was working in the pharmacy at the vet clinic,” he said.

That exposure to surgery and farm calls served as the attraction and training ground for his future career before he headed off to college where he was a chemistry major. He credits further inspiration to his science instructors at Linsly, including Noel Schwertfeger and Garth Innocenti, and headmaster Col. Ronald Salvador who served as a model of respect, responsibility and leadership.

During the late 1980s, his work included research when AIDS was making headlines.

Schmitt is married to his college sweetheart, Sharon Bryant Schmitt, who is from Glen Dale. The couple resides in Chicago with their three children, Andrew, Edward and Anna. His mother is the late Maxine Schmitt.