He sees stem cells as a solution
There was a time when Kevin Eggan counted himself among the hopeful legions of premed students. He studied microbiology. He had a taste for laboratory work. He wanted to cure diseases. But something didn't click.
``I got into med school and at the last minute I freaked out," says Eggan, now a youthful-looking 32. ``For me, being a doctor was about going to exotic places and helping people. But I wasn't quite prepared for the day-to-day grind." Instead, Eggan got an internship at
We all know the debate: Stem cells possess tremendous medical potential, but the idea of using human embryos for research makes some people morally queasy. To Eggan, now an assistant professor at Harvard's Stem Cell Institute, the benefits are clear.
``Our goal is to move the study of diseases out of the patient and into the Petrie dish," he says. Instead of looking at diseases as they do their work on a human subject, he wants to study them in controlled models, ones that use cloned cells. These would help develop treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes.
The son of a math professor, Eggan grew up in the college town of Normal, Ill. He says he was the one in his family who couldn't hack it at mathematics (his brother is an aerospace engineer), but an entire wall of his office is given over to a whiteboard crawling with hieroglyphic equations. To say that his work presents a mental challenge is like saying that Matt Damon's character in ``Good Will Hunting" was wicked smart.
Eggan entered graduate school at MIT soon after Dolly the sheep made headlines. He learned his trade in the lab of genetic research pioneer Rudolf Jaenisch (``He was doing the most exciting stuff I could imagine.") and spent time at the University of Hawaii, ``where mouse cloning was invented in a cinderblock building behind Food Services."
Eggan came to Harvard three years ago and soon joined the new Stem Cell Institute. His lab is attempting ``nuclear transfer," in which the DNA from a human egg cell is removed and replaced with DNA from a diseased patient's cells. This new cell might be used to create a line of cloned stem cells, which in turn could be grown into different types of human tissue.
``Doing a nuclear transplant is like playing the most difficult video game in the world," says Eggan. Clean-cut in a blue Oxford shirt and jeans, his aesthetic is less laboratory scientist than J. Crew. ``Imagine building your own Xbox before you play, and the game hardly works." Warming to the simile, he adds. ``It's like in Super Mario Brothers, where you have to do it over and over again until you master it."
After being appointed an assistant professor in 2005, he learned that he had to wear two hats.
When the Bush administration axed federal funding for stem cell research, scientists had to begin drumming up investment. So in addition to his Harvard position, Eggan now holds the title of assistant investigator for the Stowers Medical Institute , a medical research group funded by a pair of billionaire philanthropists from Missouri. ``We've got to be very careful to keep our federal and non-federal dollars separate."
Despite the politics, there's something of a pure researcher about Eggan. He speaks excitedly about oocytes, lab renovations, his colleagues' latest papers, and, of course, the support of the state government for his work.
``It's a dynamic time," he says. ``Boston is the best place in the country for stem cell research."
FACT SHEET
Hometown: The Leather District. With the new Institute of Contemporary Arts building opening soon, he says, ``It's a great time to be back on the waterfront."
Family: His parents back in Normal, Ill., four sisters, and a brother.
Currently reading: The works of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, best-known for ``Kafka on the Shore." ``I enjoy reading about Japanese culture, but I like Murakami's musings on philosophy, art, and life. He raises a lot of questions about free will."
Hobbies: Mountain climbing.
Sports loyalties: ``I am definitely a Red Sox fan." But he missed the entire 2004 championship series when he went to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Travel is one of the perks of his job, he says.
Ambitions: ``It's such a long, difficult road from grad school to being an assistant professor. My personal ambitions have been fulfilled, so I guess I'm in a bit of an existential crisis." 