Of mice and microbes alum leads the way By Brenda McDoanld, MSU Communications Services (left) Dr. Irv Weissman — photo by Stanford Medical School Photography One of the nation's foremost experts on human reproductive cloning and winner of the 2002 California Scientist of the Year award was launched on a path to success by a pivotal book and a thirst to do real research. Dr. Irv Weissman, '61 Premed, grew up in Great Falls. As a youngster he read the book "Microbe Hunters" that profiled leading researchers of the day. The book set his imagination on fire and he became particularly intrigued with the biography of Ernst Eichwald, a pathologist. Eichwald had established a research lab in Great Falls, the Great Falls Research Institute, after leaving a faculty position at the University of Utah. "I heard he was doing real research so I called him up and interviewed with him," Weissman recalls. Eichwald hired Weissman and by the time he graduated high school, Weissman had already published two research papers. He went on to a short stint at Dartmoth before transferring to Montana State College. At MSC he had the opportunity to study under Palmer D. "Dave" Skaar, a renowned geneticist. "I took six courses from him," he said. "He was just fantastic. We would discuss the great scientific papers of the day." Weissman knew that to pursue his love of research he would need to be in an academic center, so he went on to Stanford where he remains to this day as a professor of pathology and cancer biology. Weissman is credited with being among the first to isolate the hematopoietic stem cell in both mouse and man. His groundbreaking research has paved the way for dozens of experiments that explore the cell's power to fight illnesses as diverse as cancer and, with isolated human nervous system stem cells, Parkinson's disease. "The work I'm doing now is a natural offshoot to what I was doing decades ago in Great Falls," he said. Weissman maintains a working relationship today with the Great Falls lab that has since become the McLaughlin Research Institution. As head of the National Academy of Sciences panel on human reproductive cloning, he has spent much time this year testifying before the United States Congress regarding legislation on the issue. There was concern that Congress would ban nuclear transplantation research. Such research creates new embryonic stem cell lines from people with genetic diseases as diverse as heart trouble to diabetes in adults and juveniles. "It's gratifying that the research will go on," he said. "By banning that research, Congress could end up banning a facet of research that is as important as recombinant DNA was in the late '70s. It would have been the first time that the government banned science based on religion." Weissman and his wife Allie, a native of Great Falls, maintain strong ties to their native Montana. They have a second home in Hamilton where they have nurtured a love of Montana in their children, Carl, Amy, Steven and Emily.