The Lebanon Daily News, Lebanon, PA
Last Updated: Friday, August 01, 2003 - 10:41:12 PM EST

Older Nobel winners do cutting-edge work
By JANET FRICK

For the Daily News

CyberKnife sounds like the cranky sidekick of Captain Nemo in a Saturday morning cartoon. It is not.

The CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System is a new surgical technique which combines a robotic arm with a
sophisticated image guidance system. Developed to treat tumors in the brain, the robotic arm can move seamlessly side
to side front to back while delivering a powerful beam of radiation. On the market for just one year, CyberKnife was
originally developed to target the brain, neck and spine; however, doctors anticipate its future use in treating lung,
liver and prostate tumors as well.

In the year 2000, approximately 370,000 patients underwent some form of brain surgery. That number is expected to climb
to 430,000 by the end of the decade. The combination of technology, cutting edge imagery (some borrowed from the U. S.
Navy's magnetic wave technology once used to track Soviet submarines), and an aging baby boomer population is creating
multi-million dollar neuroscience centers in regional hospitals throughout the country. With such precision becoming
mainstream in neurosurgery, we are going to see far more aggressive operations on the brain without yesterday's high
risk of permanent speech, sight or motor skills damage. That is exciting news.

Biotechnology is also developing at the same rapid speed. One would think such new technologies were the private cache
of newly minted doctorate holders, but that is not always the case. The 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine was shared by
Eric Kandel of Columbia University, Paul Greengard of Rockefeller University and Arvid Carlsson of Sweden's Goteborg
University.

Kandel's work involved discovering the roots of memory formation the strength of the signal at the synapse, that gap
between the cells where communication takes place, which is significant to stored memory. Now, Kandel has founded
Memory Pharmaceuticals Corp., which is looking for compounds that interact with the systems involved in the formation
of memory and, in the second stage, hoping to develop medicines that enhance thinking and memory. Kandel is 73.

Paul Greengard was honored by the Nobel committee for his work on how dopamine and other chemicals interact with brain
cells. He not only heads the molecular and cellular neuroscience lab at The Rockefeller University in Manhattan, he
also directs the university's Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research. This year he has developed Intra-Cellular
Therapies Inc., a new biotech complex on the campus of Columbia University, where he is currently testing several
compounds for the treatment of depression and schizophrenia. Greengard is 77.

Avid Carlsson took home his Nobel Prize for the discovery of dopamine which he actually identified more than 40 years
ago. His research has continued on dopamine and its interaction on the various receptors in the brain. During the
1980s, Carlsson developed a substance that could raise and lower dopamine levels, depending on its excess or absence.
It was dismissed initially as too radical a concept. Today, the former Upjohn pharmaceutical company, now merged with
Pfizer Inc., holds the rights on that patent. Carlsson is working with Merck and Co. and has just completed a pilot
trial with 18 persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. A compound successful in stabilizing levels of dopamine would be
groundbreaking not only in treating schizophrenia but also in treating Parkinson's, Huntington's and perhaps even
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Carlsson turned 80 this year.

What three outstanding examples of cutting-edge aging. These three scientists have not only taken charge of their
brains, but the future of some of our brains as well.

Most of us associate change with youth, not age. Most of us associate milestones walking, talking, graduating, working,
marrying, parenting with youth, not age.

Most of us associate fears of loss of health, family, friends and meaningful living with aging. And most of us don't
associate winning Nobel prizes with aging.

Yet age can bring important surprises. We develop a deeper, richer way with words, an improved sense of judgment and
decision making, and a deep and richly-faceted touchstone of experience that can provide both an appreciation and
perspective on the richness of life. We too often forget that our ability to learn remains the same; it may just be a
little slower.

A group of 1,200 people, ages 70-80, who performed in the top third of that population have been tracked for 10 years.
Those who aged the most successfully were more physically active, more mentally active and maintained a strong sense of
effectiveness (sense of control). Kandel, Greengard and Carlsson would surely have been at the top of this class.

For those of us not working in neuroscience research, "Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises" by Lawrence Katz
is a good alternative.

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Frick is executive director of the Mental Health Association of Lebanon County.

SOURCE: The Lebanon Daily News, Lebanon, PA
http://www.ldnews.com/Stories/0,1413,139~10142~1547400,00.html

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