Extraordinary Measures

Tuesday, February 25, 2020 | By: WIU Athletic Communications

Western Illinois swimmer Madison Chao has used her forensic chemistry background to help find a possible cure for rare diseases.

When you walk into Amicus Therapeutics, it's easy to tell what their focus is on based on the pictures covering the walls.

The company was started by John Crowley after two of his children were diagnosed with the extremely rare Pompe disease. His twins were only given two years to live, but Crowley refused to give up. His fight was even displayed on the big screen in the motion picture Extraordinary Measures.

Western Illinois senior swimmer Madison Chao was always fascinated with biology but was dialed in on forensic chemistry in college. One thing Madison never forgot about was how much her uncle talked about a man called Mr. Crowley. Madison knew she wanted to be active and make a difference.

"I decided that I didn't want to work a desk job," Madison said. "I wanted to be up on my feet and hands-on every day."

In the summer of 2019, Madison officially became an intern at Amicus Therapeutics as the company fought to cure orphan diseases that affect less than 200,000 people worldwide, thus not getting proper funding elsewhere. After thorough lab safety training and a week or two of supervision, Madison was off and running on her own.

She worked in the analytical department taking samples from both clinical trials and pre-clinical trials.

"I was taking animal samples and running them to make sure the medicine is getting where it needs to go," Madison said. "It's a lot of biological samples, running human plasma samples from their clinical trial patients."

For someone with an extensive forensics background, it opened Madison's eye to what else she can do.

"It's definitely something I never really considered I could do with my skill set because with forensics you kind of automatically focus on police work," Madison said. "However, there is a lot of the chemistry you use in pharmaceutical companies too."

Sometimes summer interns are just given busywork, but that was not the case for Madison.

"It was a new experience to be working with actual human samples that we needed real data from," Madison said. "Nothing was fake, it was actual work that was being used."

While Madison and her co-workers were pushing ahead, they had constant reminders of what the ultimate goal was.

"You get to actually meet the patients and see the people that you're helping," Madison said. "It's keeping you focused on the ultimate goal of giving them a cure."

Crowley was formerly the chair of the Make-A-Wish foundation so Madison got to see some of that magic up close.

"We went to the Make-A-Wish castle in New Jersey and got to meet a patient that told their story," Madison said. "We got to see them grant her wish, which was really cool."

Although Madison still has a desire to eventually work in the FBI with an emphasis on forensics, she does feel there is some unfinished business for her at Amicus.

Madison is currently a teaching assistant in the WIU chemistry department but plans to return to Amicus this summer in Philadelphia with an ambition to work in their revolutionary gene therapy program.

"I want to go back and all of my friends are there that I really enjoyed working with," Madison said. "I would like to spend at least a couple of years there. You know what you're working towards and it's not just work every day. You're working toward a bigger goal."

The pictures on the walls are not the only reminder of the difference Madison is making.

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Western Illinois swimmer Madison Chao has used her forensic chemistry background to help find a possible cure for rare diseases.

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