Dr. Mark Roth's research on reversible hibernation has earned him a MacArthur 'genius grant' and just may transform emergency medicine
BY KRISTEN WOODWARD
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Dr. Mark Roth is not fond of the word 'no.' |
Growing up in an orphanage in Hershey, Pa., Mark Roth often was told no by the adults in his life. No, he couldn't run on the high-school track or cross-country teams. No, he'd never be a scientist or amount to a hill of beans academically. Now, the former University of Oregon track standout and accomplished cell biologist at the Hutchinson Center may one day transform emergency medicine. Obviously he didn't listen to his detractors.
More than three decades after bolting from the orphanage at age 17 into an uncertain future with a $100 bill in his pocket and a new set of clothes on his back, Roth recently received a resounding "yes." It came in a surprise phone call from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation informing him that he had received the organization's prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. The so-called "genius grant" is among the most celebrated awards bestowed by a private organization. As a MacArthur Fellow, the Center's first, Roth will receive $500,000 of no-strings-attached support over five years.
He accepted the news of this honor with an attitude as down to earth as his trademark runner's wardrobe of Converse sneakers, shorts and a T-shirt.
"I'm just incredibly humbled and happy to be recognized by such a wonderful organization," he said. "When I was young, I was told that I had no chance of fulfilling my dreams of being a competitive track and cross-country runner or of pursuing an academic career. The value of winning the MacArthur, the attention it brings, gives me a chance to tell young people out there who are being discouraged and told 'no' to not believe it — to hang on to their dreams."
Roth's own dreams — and dogged determination — led him to captain his high-school track and cross-country teams three years in a row, despite getting cut from the track team after his freshman season. "To prepare for tryouts my sophomore year of high school I ran every day to exhaustion in these weird leather Sunday shoes with hard leather soles," he said. "I think that year I ran something like 3,000 miles in the corn fields around the orphanage. It was one of those 'Forrest Gump' things." His success in high-school track led to a full-ride track scholarship at the University of Oregon.
Despite average grades, Roth's intensity as a runner was equal only to his tenacity as a student, and eventually he earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Oregon and a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Colorado, after which he spent four years in postdoctoral research at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore.
Since joining the Center in 1989, Roth has explored a variety of successful research paths, but his development of "hibernation on demand" has garnered the broadest attention.
Using minute amounts of hydrogen sulfide to temporarily dim metabolism and thereby reduce the need for oxygen, Roth has successfully induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice and other model organisms. One day the technique may be used to buy time for critically ill trauma patients on organ-transplant lists and in operating rooms, emergency rooms and battlefields.
While his findings have appeared in scientific journals ranging from Science to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, his ability to place mice into reversible hibernation also has grabbed headlines around the world, including the covers of Scientific American and New Scientist magazines and a BBC-produced TV documentary.
But perhaps the greatest evidence that Roth has hit his scientific stride is the increasing frequency with which references to his work turn up in pop culture, from the TV dramas "House" and "CSI: New York" to an entry in "Ripley's Believe it or Not! Special Edition 2007" entitled, aptly, "Mice on Ice."
"You know you've really made it when you're featured in 'Ripley's,'" he said with a grin.
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