BIOLOGIE & MEDIZIN Zur Person
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BIOLOGIE & MEDIZIN_Zur Person From football player to neuroscientist: Sam Young has had an astonishing career. Photo: O’Donnell Agency – Jennifer Sullivan BIOLOGY & MEDICINE_Personal Portrait Still Scoring Touchdowns In college they called him Stump – as in tree stump – because of his physique and his strong will. Today, former football player Samuel Young is a renowned neuroscientist. Using innovative tools and sophisticated techniques, he would like to find out how nerve cells communicate with one another. The head of a junior research group at the Max Planck Florida Institute is the quintes- sential researcher. But his career took an unconventional path. TEXT HUBERTUS BREUER amuel Young doesn’t look like and sophisticated surgical techniques someone to be messed with. that allow him to manipulate the gene The man is muscular and built functions of certain brain cells in mice like a tank, and his loud laugh and rats in order to study their neuro- confidently marks out his ter- nal signal transduction. S ritory. Sitting under the palm trees on the campus of Florida Atlantic Univer- RESEARCHING THE BRAIN sity, eating steak and fries, and hearing WITH VIRUSES how he came from a middle-class neighborhood in New Jersey to head The researcher developed these tools a junior research group at the Max himself at such academic centers as Planck Florida Institute, one gets the Princeton University, the University of impression that his physical presence North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the Salk and sheer strength of will were instru- Institute in La Jolla, California, and the mental in his achievements. After all, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical nothing was handed to this young sci- Chemistry in Göttingen. “What I do is entist on a plate. basic research – we want to know what For a little over a year now, 37-year- biophysical and molecular mechanisms old Samuel (Sam) Young has been a re- underlie brain function. Once we under- searcher in Jupiter, on the Atlantic stand these basic mechanisms, we will coast of Florida. He is researching how then be able to understand the causes of neurons communicate with one anoth- brain disease,” he says. er. He tackles his work with an innova- Young’s career could not have been tive arsenal of tools, such as manipulat- foreseen when he embarked on his xxxxxxxxxxxx ed viruses that insert genes into cells, studies – from party-loving college stu- 3 | 11 MaxPlanckResearch 67 BIOLOGY & MEDICINE_Personal Portrait » I had the feeling that nothing could break me. dent and football player to outstanding commonplace. One day, Young’s father from his meal, “but my father beat us researcher in the fields of molecular bi- was attacked and shot, and took early when we were young. That instilled in ology, virology, electrophysiology and retirement as a result. “My father was a me a certain amount of insecurity. At biophysics. The scientist remembers highly intelligent man, but unfortu- the same time, my father’s beatings something his mentor, cancer research- nately, he didn’t have the same educa- made me tougher and able to with- er Arnold Levine, told him: Young had tional opportunities that he made sure stand physical and mental punish- just graduated from Princeton and his children had.” ment.” Moreover, Sam Young was al- Levine remarked that people like him ways well built and a good athlete. “I didn’t really exist in the sciences. A GOOD EDUCATION FOR had the feeling that nothing could Sam Young grew up in New Jersey, A GOOD START break me. I always thought that I could in a typical American suburban town – survive anything.” Caldwell, about 16 miles from New Young’s father strongly encouraged his Young also excelled at school: “I York. Home was a two-story, colonial- children to get a good education: “You never had to study. Everything came to style house with a driveway and a gar- need to get an education. You don’t me very easily,” he recalls. He discov- den in the back. When Sam was a child, want to have to be doing hard physical ered his affinity for science at an early his mother worked Friday and Saturday work like me to earn a living.” Sam and age, too. One of his favorite books was nights as a waitress and later became a his siblings took his words to heart. His Science Experiments You Can Eat. He full-time housewife. She only returned older brother, Andrew, was the first per- learned how cabbage can detect acid, to work when he was in high school. son in his family to graduate from col- how bacteria make yoghurt and how ght) She finally earned a college degree two lege. He now works in the pharmaceu- sugar turns to caramel. years ago, at the age of 60. His father tical industry. His younger brother has When he went to high school, he was a sales representative for Frito-Lay, a doctorate in chemistry and works as began playing football. Young wasn’t delivering potato chips and snack foods a senior research chemist in the area of the biggest player on the team – 5’10” in neighboring Newark, a city with a green energy technology. (178 cm) in this sport tends to be below notorious reputation – drug-related “It’s hard for me to say this now,” average – but he was strong and fear- crime, gang wars and muggings were says Sam Young as he takes a break less. His reputation as a talented player In the patch clamp method, a fine glass pipette is placed on the cell membrane of a nerve cell to measure electrical current in the neurons. left Flow of current through a calcium channel in the presynaptic cell (top); flow of current in the postsynaptic part of the synapse (bottom) (nA: nanoamp; ms: millisecond) center Simultaneous measurement at the presynaptic (red arrow) and postsynaptic part (blue arrow) of a calyx of Held synapse. right Sam Young aspirates the cell membrane. The vacuum causes the edges of the pipette to adhere to the membrane. pre lCa 1 nA EPSC 1 nA 2 ms Graphics: Max Planck Florida Institute; photos: Institute (center), O’Donnell Agency – Jennifer Sullivan (ri 68 MaxPlanckResearch 3 | 11 BIOLOGIE & MEDIZIN_Zur Person Sam Young checks to see how an experiment is progressing. Fluorescent nerve cells can be seen on the screen in the background beside the microscope. helped him in his college applications. strong bond among the football play- When he again turned his attention to Of all places, it was the elite Princeton ers, and Young soon found a home the natural sciences, he decided to ma- University that was grateful to welcome within the football team. jor in molecular biology. When he ap- the football player with excellent grades Young began his first semester with proached the secretary in the depart- in its incoming college class. For Young, an experiment: “Because I always per- ment, she simply looked at him and it was confirmation of his belief that he formed well in the natural sciences, I said: “There are no football players in could do anything. wanted to see what would happen if I our department.” However, one of the attended seminars only in the human- stars in the field of molecular biology, SNOBBERY AND PREJUDICE ities. As it turned out, that wasn’t such cancer researcher Arnold Levine, was a good idea.” All the while, he was par- himself a football fan and took Young Princeton was a culture shock; the ma- tying hard, just like many American under his wing. “If it wasn’t for Arnie jority of his classmates came from college students living away from Levine giving me a chance, I probably wealthy families who had attended pri- home for the first time. Young in- wouldn’t be a scientist today,” says vate schools and had every advantage dulged excessively in the initiation Young. Levine was famous as the co- that such environments offered. All of rites that mark the passage into the discoverer of the protein p53, which them were destined, from the day they world of young adulthood. “I was the suppresses the development of cancer were born, to attend an Ivy League uni- one who always did something crazy in some tumors. He accepted that versity. “Initially, I had major problems at a party. Most of my fellow students Young would be unable to work in the with the elitism on campus.” Class- didn’t even know my real name. To lab during the football season, but he mates made him and other football them I was simply ‘Stump’” – as in tree could count on him twice as much for players feel that they had been accept- stump, the man who is as wide as he the rest of the time. He assigned Dan ed at Princeton merely because of their is tall and doesn’t move for anything Notterman to be Young’s adviser. The Photo: O’Donnell Agency – Jennifer Sullivan sporting skills. Naturally, that created a or anybody. molecular biologist had worked with 3 | 11 MaxPlanckResearch 69 BIOLOGY & MEDICINE_Personal Portrait » I was the one who always did something crazy at a party. Levine to investigate whether p53 was During his last year in Princeton, the viral gene therapy and co-creator of also instrumental in preventing the for- young scientist heard two lectures that gene therapy vectors, Jude Samulski at mation of cells with abnormal chromo- would have a crucial influence on his the University of North Carolina in some numbers. In 1998, two years after career: one on the potential of gene Chapel Hill, paved the way for his sci- he graduated from college, Young pub- therapy, and another on the study of entific career.