Nobel laureate thoughts

We at Pitt were fortunate to hear Nobel Prize winner for 2007 deliver a key note address on his ongoing research activities. Univ of Pittsburgh Medical school (UPMC) has had a rich history in that whomever they call to deliver the Hoffman Key note lecture has gone onto win the Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine/Physiology. (This is an ongoing probability tug of war that UPMC always beats the odds in calling the right person to deliver the speech for the past 7 yrs!!).

The atmosphere was so hallowed, the alumni hall was packed to the hilt, there was a genuine air of warm expectation in the wind, (which contrasted to the cold wave biting all of those who were not able to enter the hall..watching outside on the giant screen). Anyways, our Infectious dept Indian guys managed to wrangle out the black tickets( Trust me , habits really stick on and they help u when in need) and we were let in albeit with a bit of suspicion by the surly matron. The irony was that our sincere Profs were left out standing...The talk was on and the great man succintly talked on the Genetic models in mice modelled to develop human diseases. He tranfected the mice with oncogenic (cancerous) genes (in embryo)....and managed to develop histopatholgical and gross lesions that exactly resembled human cancer in vivo. Later on, came the exciting breakthrough acheived due to endless hardwork and night awakenings. They followed the same techniques and applied it to the brain circuits!!. They managed to transfect the mice with HOX genes...that caused pathological grooming (mice continously scratching and pulling out the hair, even to the extent of neglecting food and sex). This model was so akin to the human Obsesive compulsion disorder ...and lo..there was big breakthrough in the scientific world. The talk went on to describe the neuropsychiatric conditions that can be and on existing current models. It ended with a standing ovation and the house was thrown open for discusion. Nobody wanted to disturb the applecart ( so full of bountiful grants that may be denied if they questioned the great man!). Probably it might have the perennial itch to walk upto the podium and face the camera and look into his eyes / to prove to my advisor that all the goofs I do in Journal clubs can be excused with this grand entry of mine into the regal world of research/ to find out the passion which the great man had for his work..whatever may have been my state at that time.... I managed to muster the courage (my hands were literally tied down by my friends)..., nervously walked upto the mike and asked him (stammering came back to haunt me after a gap of 12 yrs) as to WHETHER HE EVER THOUGHT OF MODELLING ANIMALS TO FIND OUT PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF POVERTY.

I managed to ask a real hard core basic sciences researcher on somethinh which even economists struggle to answer. Come to think of it...It must have been the position paper that I had to write for Public health overview 2 credit course on Poverty that must have been subconscioulsy working in my stupid grey cells at that point of time. There was stunned silence for a moment and then the audience slowly and nervously began to talk of the relevance of the question and on the goof up that I created. The over 65 +faculty sitting in the front row turned on their hind legs to find out who this champion of poverty was!. The fact that the nobel laureate should choose to drink water at that point of time added to the haunted silence of those 5 seconds. (How I wished the earth would swallow me). The desolation in the air was dispelled by him in the end. He started recounting his 8 childhood yrs which he spent on the streets of Italy. (For a brief period of 8 yrs, he was separated from his mother and spent his early childhood in penury). His apt reponse was that environmental factors and genetics are two issues which are distinct , but linked in a way by society. Mice kept in the same cage..one given food and the other starved..tend to be aggressive in the initial days, but later on come to accept their positions, very akin to our real worls situation. It is what is fundamentally called adaptation. He asked me to focus on the real world outside for this daunting question and to come back to him with data on socio economic conditions and behavorial adaptations to model the same in animals. So . in the end , it was DATA!!! and adaptation. All of us come from middle class background and we have never seen real poverty at close quarters. When we go back into our respective careers and look at the ground situation in India, I think we should be sensitised to the disparity in the diaspora of the Indian mentality and strive to negate the perceived notions of "Oh! It doesnt affectme". In the end, I was vindicated when my position paper on poverty received only 80% mks, because I have never experienced it. I have consciously tried to highlight my feelings so that I can sensitize many of you to show that Great people are indeed humble and always have a humble beginning like any one of us!!. Have a great weekend..but spare a thought to the social revolution on ur social outings this weekend. Bye for now.. I do ramble a lot!!
Raghupathy