Neuroscience Professor Stewart Hendry knew he wanted to work in a lab since he was a kid. Now in his mid-50s, he considers his teaching and research to be the best job on the planet. The News-Letter met with him on Monday to discuss his career, his future and his advice to students.
News-Letter: What interested you in neuroscience?
Stewart Hendry: When I was a first quarter freshman at Emory University, I took a class called Brain and Behavior. From that point on I knew what I was going to do with my life. At Emory, I studied communication between the two parts of the brain, but when I went to Washington University at St. Louis, I began to think about the cerebral cortex and how it was put together. What happens when information comes into the brain is pretty rudimentary stuff. When the body receives information it looks a lot like what the eye sees or the skin feels. There's something about the cortex that fascinated me, because it processes that information. The questions I thought were interesting to answer were in the visual cortex. The visual cortex is laid out beautifully. It's easier to answer questions of the brain when there's order than when it's chaotic.
N-L: What is your current research about?
SH: It's about the organization of the primate visual system. You can think of vision in terms of two-dimensional pixels. That's how it begins, but at some point it stops being pixels and it becomes faces. It's not like your face looks like pixels to me. I have a hard time grasping the complex issue of facial recognition; and the concepts of how we can see color have always interested me.
N-L: What do you think the future implications or applications of your research will be?
SH: I have a better sense of why we see in color. You often don't know how these things will pan out when you're doing them. For example, there was a young man working at Genentech with human epidermal growth factor receptors. And in doing so he figured out how to make the receptor work even when the growth factor wasn't around. When this happens, the cells divide and the daughter cells divide, and suddenly you've turned a normal cell into a cancer cell. Well, what's that got to do with the price of rice in China? This young man thought that if this is a cause of cancer, we should see if we can treat it by applying antibodies. It was a crazy idea! But that crazy idea gave rise to a drug called Herceptin that keeps women with breast cancer alive for years. He couldn't have figured that out when he started his research. As for my research, we now know why we see in color. Almost every neurological disorder I can name, including Alzheimers and multiple sclerosis, involves a defect in color vision. It's vey clear now that there is a pathway for color signals which is susceptible to disease. We don't know what this means yet, but we have the tools to ask the right questions.
N-L: When did you know that you wanted to study the brain?
SH: I knew I wanted to do research my whole life. I read a book when I was 10 years old called the Microbe Hunters and it was about Pasteur and Koch and everyone who figured out that viruses and bacteria cause major diseases. And I thought, wow, these guys are seeing things that no one has seen before. I thought about all the people they had helped. Their led to all the treatments for polio, and more importantly, led to an appreciation for public health. They were able to fix that, and think about how much better life is because of that. I always knew I wanted to get into research, and brain research sounded like a good idea to me. Toward my time at the end of Emory I had to make a decision whether to apply to medical school or graduate school to continue my research. I chose graduate school.
N-L: Why?
SH: A lot of reasons. Mainly, I wanted to get on with the job. At the time, I don't think I fully appreciated how beneficial it is to go into a research career with a medical degree. Also, it was my emotional rebellion to the classic pre-med syndrome. I could just see myself spending the next four years of my life among the same people [I competed with in college] and I wanted to rebel. It was a mistake. It's something I would definitely approach differently if I had the chance now. This is advice I give to lots of people. There is nothing that a PhD can do that a medical degree can't. You can do research, run a lab, and have faculty positions. But there are things than an MD can do that a PhD can't. I closed some doors for myself by choosing graduate school over medical school.
N-L: In 2005, when you were awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award, you said in an interview that you had the best job on the planet.
SH: I do. I absolutely do. Think about the people you go to school with. They have beautiful minds. They are compelling, wonderful people. I get to be around these fantastic people all day, so [in my job] I never left college. I get to play god in my job. I get to make decisions. If someone is having trouble, I can fix it. Yeah, everyone has intrinsic value, but you folks here are the ones who are going to change the world. And for a small portion of time, I can take you from your parents and change you before you put yourself out into the world. Can you come up with a better job than that? If you do, let me know. Well, maybe if I was a relief pitcher in the major leagues. That might be a better job.
N-L: You seem to have found something that you enjoy doing very much. What advice do you have for people who don't know what they are passionate about in life yet?
SH: Don't close doors any sooner than you need to, and don't be certain that the path you've decided on is the best path. Too many students have a rigid set of things that they want to accomplish while they are here. They aren't enjoying themselves. [My colleagues and I] wish that you all were enthused with learning rather than grimly determined to get a good grade. Never lose enthusiasm for learning new things. It's not a sprint. The perspective I have at this point in my life is getting to your life's goal is not something that you have to do as early as possible. I graduated college at 20. That's young, maybe too young. Slow down and enjoy the ride, and be open to all sorts of paths.
N-L: After studying the brain for so long, do you find you have a new perspective with the people you interact with?
SH: Yes. There's a part of the brain called the Emigdula. In your average cat or dog, it's the part of the brain that they use to find out what attracts them and what they should avoid. Humans have one as well, and it's quite useful. But we're not slaves to it, because we have a huge part of our brain called the prefrontal cortex that controls the Emigdula. We don't have to give into fears or succumb to temptations because our prefrontal cortex is working. A lot of what we think about in social behavior is using the prefrontal cortex in controlling the Emigdula. When I see someone who's angry or going on very excitedly, I think to myself that their prefrontal cortex isn't suppressing their Emigdula. It's a way to interpret other people's actions and interpret my own.
N-L: How is Hopkins different from the other schools you've been at?
SH: Well let me say that the Washington University Medical School and Hopkins Medical School are clones. Washington University is newer, so I would have to say it was deliberately cloned based on the Hopkins model. And St. Louis is so similar to Baltimore that I often confuse the two. But if you look at the Homewood campus versus Emory and the undergraduate campus at Washington University, this place is very different in its focus. We're famous for attracting and training very bright, very focused young people. Just look at the number of people in the library on a Friday night. I was like that in college - I can identify with them.
N-L: What's next for you?
SH: I have a lot of doors that are still open. I love the neuroscience program here. It began just a bit more than a decade ago, and it has turned into one of the best. Why? Because we have a lot of faculty who have pride in how well they take care of your folks. I would like to remain a part of that for as long as possible. I would say I have about 10 years left in my intellectual academic life. It's only fair that at some point in the early 60s of a person's life, he or she should get out of the way and let young people have their say. I don't plan on doing lab research until I'm 80. Another 10 years is enough. I haven't decided what I want to spend those years doing in the lab. I might want to try something new.
