Marius Wernig, MD, is a researcher with training in classical music. Today he has a groundbreaking study coming out on stem cells in Nature. He and his research team have succeeded in transforming mouse skin cells in a laboratory dish into functional nerve cells, bypassing the iPSC stage long thought to be a requirement. Irving Weissman, MD, Stanford's director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, believes this finding brings us that much closer to cures for human beings.
In my latest 1:2:1 podcast I talked with Marius about his research and his training as a classical musician. I especially loved the part when he talked about his awe at his discovery. He told me how excited he was, at that moment, to be the only person in the world who had information about this stunning finding.
The miracle of discovery is clearly why he chose biomedical research over classical music. Music's loss is a gain for science.
