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His
mother told a Northern Virginia newspaper that
“when he was four or five, he was always in the
creek catching stuff.” His father added for a
newspaper in Culpeper, where the parents now live:
“We used to call him Crayfish Craig.”
That’s
the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in
Medicine, Dr. Craig C. Mello, they are talking about
and pretty proudly, too.
Now
a professor at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School, Fairfax County native Craig Mello
will share the Nobel Prize at a presentation in
Stockholm in December with Andrew Z. Fire of
Stanford University for their work on RNA
interference, a gene-regulating mechanism inside
cells. The two will split $1.4 million. But more
importantly, their work is opening doors to the
development of the drugs of the future.
As
Mello himself explained in an address to his
colleagues, "Every time a human disease
develops, there is some related effect on gene
expression, whether it is a tumor cell or a
developmental defect. RNAi technology can be used in
the laboratory to study the underlying genetic basis
of disease or to develop RNAi therapeutic drugs to
target disease."
Mello
obviously enjoyed his boyhood experiences in a
Fairfax creek. He certainly drew on the knowledge,
the discipline and the excitement about science of
his paleontologist father, a former associate
director of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural
History. He clearly relished the challenges of
biology, chemistry and other sciences at Fairfax
High School, Brown University (degree in
biochemistry) and Harvard University (doctorate in
cellular and developmental biology). And he seems to
have kept that curiosity and enthusiasm that drives
innovation in any field.
“He
is in this for the fun of science and the fun of
discovery and he really just loves to contribute -
not for the recognition but to figure things out,”
a colleague told reporters after Mello’s Nobel
Prize award was announced. “Being a scientist is
one of the coolest things you can do in the world
because you can come to work and say, ‘Gee how
does this work,’ and use the techniques and tools
you have to answer that question.”
Bottling
that approach and the opportunity for those
experiences is what science, math and technology
education in Virginia ought to be about at every
level. A Virginia General Assembly joint
subcommittee is studying that very topic right now
with the goal of reporting at the end of November
2006 and again in November 2007 on new state
initiatives. The official charge is predictable.
Review the curriculum of existing public schools in
the Commonwealth, including Governor's Schools and
other specialized public schools devoted to math,
science, or technology. Study accessibility to
specialized public schools by students throughout
the Commonwealth. Examine the Standards of Learning
for math and science to ensure that students are
provided with the fundamentals necessary for
successful continuation of science, math, and
technology education at the college level. Review
and recommend innovative ways to interest students
at all education levels in science, math, and
technology. Examine the possibility of encouraging
partnerships between educators at the Commonwealth's
public schools and institutions of higher education,
as well as with business and research entities in
the science and technology sectors located in the
Commonwealth.
But
there ought to be a complementary set of actions for
subcommittee members: Review Craig Mello’s
biography and take it literally. Make sure there are
clean and biologically diverse creeks and streams
within walking distance of Virginia’s children.
Hint: Pay particular attention to the Hazel River
where Mello likes to kayak when visiting his parents
in Rixeyville.
Train
more math, science and technology teachers and pay
them more money to allow Virginia public schools and
colleges to compete with private industry for their
services. One of Mello’s high school science
teachers described how his interaction with Mello
worked at Fairfax High School. "Craig had a
special intensity. His concentration level was deep,
and he was very inventive. We had a lot of labs, and
Craig would add to the procedures to make them more
interesting."
Add
labs, lots of labs to Virginia schools. Then
increase investment of state dollars in new
university-private sector partnerships to build
cutting-edge R&D programs that attract those
most drawn to the “fun of discovery,” those who
want to “figure things out.” Hint: Visit Howard
Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm in Loudoun
County, now open, which will house about 250 staff
studying basic brain function and new imaging
technologies.
These
complementary approaches under a report section
entitled “Catching Crayfish Craig” might not
only produce a Nobel Prize winner such as Craig
Mello, they also could help produce an engineer with
Hazel Construction Co. (Craig’s brother Frank), a
principal at Rappahannock County High School
(brother Roger) and a librarian in Fauquier County
(sister Jeanne). That creek of learning, opportunity
and accomplishment turns out to run strong and deep
through a whole family, perhaps even a Commonwealth.
--
October 23, 2006
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