The road to discovery
Dr. Sam Weiss's scientific breakthrough came when he was looking for something else entirely.
Story by Sheelagh Matthews/Photo by Trudie Lee
Back in 1980 a young man from McGill University applied to a newly created medical research foundation for funding to support his research in neuroscience. Sam Weiss was one of the first students funded by AHFMR.
Dr. Samuel Weiss went on to become an AHFMR Scientist and a prominent researcher and professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine. In April of this year, he was presented with one of the medical community's most coveted prizes, the Gairdner International Award, "for his seminal discovery of adult neural stem cells in the mammalian brain and its importance in nerve cell regeneration." Known as the "Baby Nobel" in medical circles, this annual award recognizes the world's top scientists in medical research.
Everything changed for this scientist back in 1990. While investigating how to use growth factors to protect the brain, Dr. Weiss and his student, Brent Reynolds, stumbled upon what turned out to be neural stem cells-brain cells that could regenerate. At that time the conventional thinking was that once a brain cell was lost, it was gone forever. This new notion of regenerating adult mammalian brain cells would be a tough sell to the medical community.
Believe it or not, it was tough to sell to Dr. Weiss, too. It was Reynolds who convinced him that their accidental discovery was worth a second look. Once they had proven that a natural protein could indeed trigger the process of division in adult brain cells, an even bigger question loomed. Could these new brain cells make electrical cells, the kind needed to send electrical transmissions such as response signals to other areas of the brain and body?
The answer was yes, they could. It was a scientific breakthrough, one that went against all previously published and accepted medical dogma. Dr. Weiss recalls, "I can still remember the moment . . . I was thinking, 'This is significant.'"
Going against the belief system of the medical community was no less significant. It took two long years of confirming their findings before Science finally published their discovery of neural stem cells in 1992. That's when peers in the medical and research communities began to embrace this new concept.
The implications of this new knowledge for people's quality of life is what Dr. Weiss finds most important. Stem cells in the adult brain could be crucial for treating brain injury or disease. Clinical trials involving stroke patients are underway now, to see if hormones can stimulate adult neural stem cells to grow again after stroke. The concept of using hormones to treat stroke is a direct result of work led by AHFMR Ph.D. student Gloria Mak from Dr. Weiss's lab.
A major new avenue of Dr. Weiss's current research deals with cancerous stem cells, particularly those in the brain. About half of his lab is now dedicated to exploring whether a genetic change in adult stem cells is the root of human brain cancer. To fast-track this type of research, Dr. Weiss and Dr. John Kelly, a young neurosurgery resident and AHFMR Clinical Fellow who leads this effort in the Weiss lab, are busy making as many stem-cell lines for human brain cancer as possible to share with researchers around the world.
"Every minute counts," says Dr. Weiss. "Brain cancer is one of the top two lethal and devastating cancers. These [stem-cell lines] are the type of resources that you have an incredible obligation to share with your colleagues."
Beyond the lab, Dr. Weiss is a strong advocate of funding basic scientific research, not just the kind that we know will be used in the clinic. Firmly of the opinion that advancements in knowledge should not be constrained, Dr. Weiss offers this advice to new researchers: "Be prepared to explore something you weren't looking for; challenge the dogma; don't do the safe experiments; and if you find something interesting, pursue it vigorously."