Meet the Scientist Index Nicholas C. Spitzer Explore and Discover with Nicholas C. Spitzer: Brain Science: Behind The Scenes Biography Dr. Nicholas Spitzer is a professor of biology at UCSD. He is currently investigating neurological growth during early development in frogs. Dr. Spitzer researches the mechanisms that cause neurons to differentiate and take on specialized functions. These mechanisms also enable the incredible complexity of the human brain. Interview Conducted by Shelley DuBois Q: The development of any system within the body is complicated. Why did you choose the development of the nervous system for your life’s work? The nervous system is generally touted as the most complex of the organ systems, and its development arguably presents the most complicated problems. There is an attraction to working on complicated problems and a great satisfaction in solving them. Do we fully understand how the nervous system develops? No! Have we made progress? Yes! That’s important. The nervous system is an integral part of who we are. All sorts of things that happen during the development of the brain affect our identity and our creative ability. In this respect it stands out among the other organs of the body. I have an artificial hip that I got 5 years ago. I don’t see my skeletal structure as a key part of my identity although I’m glad that the replacement works as well as the other one does. Q: Are you especially interested in frogs, or do you use them because they are useful for your research? A: Frogs are a convenient model system—convenient for the kinds of questions I want to answer. Different models are best suited to answer different questions. Some questions can be answered by studying unicellular organisms like yeast and E. coli. Of course yeast and bacteria are not good models for studies of the development of the nervous system! Frogs are a useful model system for several reasons. They develop quickly; much of the development of the larval nervous system takes place within a 24-hour period. So we can do experiments and get answers quickly. In addition, the fertilization and development of frogs are external and the embryos are easily accessible for investigation. Chick embryos go through the early phases of their neural development inside a shell and mouse embryos develop in utero. For the questions that my colleagues and I want answer, we would miss the boat if we waited for hatching or birth. In the future, I would like to find out if our findings about the frog nervous system are applicable to the mammalian nervous system. Q: What are other key parts of your personality, outside of being a scientist? A: As a scientist who has discovered things that other scientists consider interesting, I’m invited to travel and give talks. I like to take advantage of these opportunities to visit places. Outside of work, I like to be outdoors. I enjoy rock climbing, ice climbing, and skiing. Q: What is the lifestyle of a researcher at UCSD such as yourself? A: It’s a competitive environment; we are all ambitious people. I’m pulling long hours seven days a week. I work with wonderful students, and it’s great to watch them evolve in the lab. Some of them decide that they want to pursue a career of academic research, and some of them realize that this lifestyle is not what they had in mind. I love my family. I have a great family with five children between the ages of 3 and 26, and I know they get shortchanged sometimes with my work schedule. But I take them camping and take them on trips, and make an extra effort to spend time with them. Overall I think it works out. I wouldn’t have my lifestyle any other way—I love it. It’s addicting. I have the opportunity to discover things that have never been discovered before. I feel lucky to get up, go to work, have these colleagues, this equipment, these facilities, and discover new things. I’m like a kid in a candy shop—these are remarkable opportunities.