Fulbright Scholar in New Adventure Could Be Regulated Anne Trafton News Office MIT Researchers Find Potential for Better Understanding of Schizophrenia
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Volume 52 – Number 2 Wednesday, September 19, 2007 TechTalk S ERVING THE MIT CO mm UNI T Y Brain’s messengers Fulbright scholar in new adventure could be regulated Anne Trafton News Office MIT researchers find potential for better understanding of schizophrenia In the 26 years since he first arrived at Deborah Halber MIT as a freshman, V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai News Office Correspondent has earned four MIT degrees and started two multimillion-dollar companies. This fall, he will use his most recent Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute degree, a Ph.D. in computational systems for Learning and Memory have found that biology, and a Fulbright Scholarship to tiny, spontaneous releases of the brain’s explore one of his lifelong interests: the primary chemical messengers can be intersection of Eastern and Western medi- regulated, potentially giving scientists cine. unprecedented control over how the brain Ayyadurai’s upcoming project is the lat- is wired. est in a series of personal ventures that The work, reported in the Sept. 16 early have spanned fields as diverse as electron- online edition of Nature Neuroscience, ic communications, animation and molecu- could lead to a better understanding of lar biology. His experience shows what is neurological diseases like schizophrenia. possible with an MIT education, he says. Sputtering electrical activity—like a “I don’t think I could have done this firecracker’s leftover sparks after a big anywhere else,” said Ayyadurai, 43. “MIT bang—was long considered inconsequen- is a great place to follow your dreams.” tial background noise compared with the Ayyadurai started dreaming as a child main cell-to-cell interactions underlying PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY in India, where his grandfather was a thought and memory. farmer and his grandmother a shaman, or Shiva Ayyadurai, Ph.D., won a Fulbright scholarship to travel to India and study Eastern But lead author J. Troy Littleton, Fred traditional healer. He became interested medicine. and Carole Middleton Associate Profes- in medicine watching his grandmother sor of Biology at MIT, and colleagues diagnose and treat patients based on a found that the miniscule events that fol- system of “elements”—earth, water, fire, ern and Western medical traditions can if it really works,” he said. low a burst of electrical and chemical activ- metal and wood. That approach may seem learn from each other. Ayyadurai sees the Ayyadurai departs for India this month ity among neurons are far more important strange to Westerners, but “you’d see peo- exchange as a two-way street: He plans to to begin his studies, and he also plans to that previously thought. A breakdown in ple actually getting healed,” he said. apply Western scientific rigor to testing start raising funds to launch an MIT-affili- this molecular mechanism could be the When Ayyadurai started as a fresh- the long-established traditions of the East, ated center to study Eastern medicine. culprit in schizophrenia and other neuro- man at MIT in 1981, he planned to go and to study how the Eastern “elements” Road to success logical diseases, the authors reported. to medical school but later changed his can inform Western medicine. Neurons communicate with one anoth- plans. He found Western medicine, with He points out that the market for alter- Ayyadurai’s path to the Fulbright Schol- er through chemical junctions called syn- its dependence on looking up symptoms native therapies based on Eastern medi- arship has been marked by early and fre- apses. Key to the system are complexins. in reference books, very different from cine is growing every year, even without quent successes in a variety of fields. These small proteins play a role in the his grandmother’s practice. “There was scientific evidence to support their use- He moved to New Jersey with his par- release of the brain’s chemical messen- always something sterile about Western fulness. medicine,” he said. “I got turned off by it.” “Let’s look at glucosamine and see if it See FULBRIGHT See BRAIN Now, he wants to explore what East- really works. Let’s look at ginkgo and see Page 3 Page 4 MIT, Legatum to create new center Center to be funded by a structured gift of $50M by Legatum Legatum, a private firm that invests in and industry leaders on topics relating to the global financial markets and in initia- entrepreneurship, leadership and business tives that support sustainable develop- development. ment, announced Sept. 17 a structured gift “MIT has a long and distinguished his- of $50 million to create a new center at tory of technological innovation and entre- MIT. The establishment of the Legatum preneurship and is therefore the natural Center for Development and Entrepre- home for this initiative. We hope that over neurship will support aspiring entrepre- time the Legatum fellows will be consid- neurs from the developing world who ered among the business leaders of the have a strong commitment to development developing world,” added Stoleson. entrepreneurship, helping them to acquire MIT and Legatum share the view that the knowledge and skills required for suc- providing students with these skills will cessful business development and civic give them the knowledge and experience leadership around the world. they need to contribute towards the devel- “The Legatum Center at MIT has been opment required to establish prosperity established to provide a launching pad for among emerging nations. a new generation of entrepreneurs who The Legatum Center for Development want to develop the technologies and skills and Entrepreneurship is now seeking necessary to operate innovative businesses applications for Legatum Fellowships for in a developing market context,” said Mark the 2008-2009 academic year from gradu- Stoleson, president of Legatum. ate students at MIT. These fellowships The Legatum Center at MIT will help will provide support to students who are students develop and commercialize new motivated by a desire to apply their tal- technologies, while exploring the appli- ents to grassroots commercial solutions in IMAGE / AURORE SIMONNET/SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY cation of practical, enterprise-based solu- developing nations. The Legatum fellows, tions to address deep-rooted problems in drawn from across the five MIT schools, Cosmic dance of death developing nations. In addition, the cen- will engage in a cross-faculty program MIT astronomers played a key role in discovering what NASA calls one of the most ter will provide a venue for competitions bizarre objects in space. To read what it is, please see page 4. and prizes, seminars, workshops, debates See LEGATUM and forums, engaging visiting scholars Page 6 NEWS RESEARCH ARTS NIH AWARDS POINTS OF VIEW MILGRAM SHOW Emery Brown, 3 other faculty are winners Researchers identify the gene responsible for Compton Gallery exhibition focuses on retiring Page 8 binocular vision professor’s work Page 4 Page 7 MIDDLE EAST Unique MIT-rooted program bears fruit ‘JIHAD EFFECT’ SHADOW OF THE MOON Page 8 Grad student studies how wars impact terrorist MIT hosts sneak preview of Apollo missions film movements Page 7 Page 5 PAGE 2 September 19, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk OBITUARIES Buchanan completed his undergraduate degree in jazz player who liked to and could teach,” said composer Eugene Bell, ‘father of chemistry at DePauw University in 1938 and earned a and Institute Professor John Harbison of MIT’s music master’s in biological chemistry at the University of Michi- section. tissue engineering,’ to gan in 1939. He moved to Harvard Medical School for his A celebration of Pomeroy’s life and music was held Ph.D. work under A. Baird Hastings, where his research Sept. 9, at Emmanuel Church in Boston. The MIT Festival contributed to understanding the gluconeogenic pathway Jazz Ensemble will conduct a memorial concert next May be honored Nov. 19 from lactic acid. This was one of the pioneering studies in Kresge Auditorium. on biosynthetic pathways using isotopically labeled pre- A memorial service for former Professor of Biology cursors, in this case, the extremely short half-life form of Eugene Bell will be held at noon Monday, Nov. 19, in the carbon, 11C. MIT Chapel. After completing his Ph.D. in 1943, he joined the faculty Hollis M. Lilly, 36 Bell, who was renowned for his pioneering work in the in physiological chemistry at the University of Pennsylva- field of regenerative medicine, died June 22. He was 88. nia Medical School, rising to full professor by the time Hollis M. Lilly, staff associate in the Office of Under- Bell recently donated more than $1 million to MIT to he left for MIT in 1953. Buchanan was awarded a Medi- graduate Advising and Academic Programming, died on establish the Eugene Bell Career Development Professor- cal Research Council Fellowship between 1946 and 1948, July 28 due to complications from surgery. He was 36. ship of Tissue Engineering. Darrell J. Irvine, the inaugural which he used to work with Hugo Theorell at the Nobel Lilly came to MIT in October 2003. In his capacity as holder of the professorship, said Bell came to be known as Institute in Stockholm. This was a singularly successful staff to the faculty Committee on Academic Performance the “father of tissue engineering” as a result of a seminal period in Buchanan’s career, in which he gained expertise (CAP) and as the coordinator of AP transfer credit and study he published in the journal Science in 1981. in protein and enzyme chemistry. He also met Elsa Nils- UAAP sponsored study sessions, he worked with both That study, which has been cited more than 400 son, who would in due time become Elsa Buchanan, his faculty and students. times, demonstrated a way to repair skin wounds with wife and inseparable companion of 58 years.