Samuel Weiss: Science and Serendipity

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By Shawn Lawrence

It is a proven fact that in the scientific world of controlled experiments, behind a surprising number of scientific breakthroughs, there are a number of lucky accidents. In fact, scientists have come to some of their most important findings while they’re off looking for something else entirely.

While it is important to appreciate that serendipity does play a role in science, progress is also the result of rigorous research, analysis and the ability to uncover the answers in the small things that don’t add up. As Louis Pasteur once said on the subject, “In the field of observation, chance only favours the prepared mind.”

Canadian neurobiologist Dr. Samuel Weiss is a scientist that succeeded not just because of a little serendipity but also because he was willing to look beyond the data and spot the small things that didn’t add up. He did it not once but twice.

In 1985, while working alongside Dr Fritz Sladeczek, Weiss discovered the metabotropic glutamate receptor. Like many eureka moments in science, Dr. Weiss was looking to try something out of the ordinary and stumbled upon an accidental finding. Then again in 1992 while working at the University of Calgary, fortune smiled upon him a second time as he and graduate student Brent Reynolds made the more noteworthy of his two discoveries, realizing that the adult brain can actually produce new cells.

“We were actually investigating how to use growth factors to protect the brain,” reflects Dr. Weiss on his accidental observation. “That’s when we found cells in the brain that seemed to behave like stem cells. We did some experiments and confirmed it-they were indeed neural stem cells.”

As a result, Dr. Weiss’s lab became the first to prove that adult stem cells existed in the brain. It was a finding that defied proven scientific dogma of the time and garnered headlines in nearly every major newspaper around the world. His findings also led to renewed hope within the neurosciences community, that improving outcomes and the quality of life for those suffering from neurological injuries or even mental health situations was possible.

“Up until that point, it was thought we essentially had the full compliment of our brain cells shortly after birth. But our findings proved clearly that wasn’t the case, that in fact there’s a continuous replenishment and great potential for harnessing that replenishment, that they could be coaxed into producing new cells to replace damaged or destroyed brain cells,” Weiss explained. “So it changed the possible strategies if you’d like, towards harnessing our own brain potential to improved outcomes.”

And it is because of this discovery that he is recognized for bringing hope to millions suffering from brain diseases and spinal cord injuries.

Ironically, Dr. Weiss was a latecomer to the science scene. While his interest in the field has always been there, it wasn’t until his senior year as an undergraduate at McGill University that he made the choice to even become a neuroscientist.

“I was inspired by two of my senior professors at McGill, who made it sound so interesting. That encouraged me to enter graduate school in the neurosciences and from that point forward I was hooked.”

He admits that even still today, that while he doesn’t have a specific road that he’s traveling down, his hope is to achieve a better understanding of the workings of the brain and spinal cord that will give him the ability to use it towards some enhanced outcome to improve human quality of life.

Recently, Dr. Weiss was honoured for his work with a Gairdner International Award, one of the world’s most prestigious medical science honours. Historically one in four Gairdner awardees has gone on to win a Nobel Prize and in its 49-year history of the Gairdner International Awards, only 42 of them have gone to Canadians. Likewise, in 2004 he also received the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies Presidents’ Award in Life Sciences research.

For Dr. Weiss the awards are always appreciated, but he’s very quick to point that this work and these awards represent not just him, but a team of very highly qualified trainees, lab associates and collaborators as well as the University of Calgary.

“I think what’s particularly important is that it recognizes the balance between discovery and challenging the dogma as well as translating knowledge into practice, not just on my part but everyone that I’ve worked with and I think that that’s an important message that I continue to try to explain to others, that we need to be able to continue to allow for discovery, innovation and curiosity while simultaneously pushing the most effective new knowledge towards practical applications.”

As the inaugural director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, a position he has held since 2004, Dr. Weiss heads up a group of leading scientists and clinicians from several research disciplines. Together they are working to expand on his stem cell work.

Thus far, their findings have uncovered new methods in aiding stroke recovery, as well as new treatments for people with spinal cord injuries, specifically through the neural stem cell transplantation. Their research also shows that after a stroke, some adult stem cells automatically head toward the site of the injury, though not in nearly enough numbers to repair the damage.

By injecting the site, though, with growth factors, naturally occurring proteins produced by the body to promote new tissues, Dr. Weiss’s team has found that it can boost the number of stem cells sent to the stroke area a hundredfold. Similarly the team is also trying to understand how mutations in adult neural stem cells may result in brain cancer, which could prove significant in prevention of that disease.

His work is also being carried forward by one of the two companies he has founded in this area, Stem Cell Therapeutics, a Canadian biotechnology company focused on the development of drug based therapies to treat central nervous system diseases. Weiss is largely responsible for the company’s lead program, NTx™-265; a regimen of two approved and marketed drugs targeting the treatment of stroke. Additionally his stem cell regenerative work is the foundation of Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.’s therapeutic approach to stroke, traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis. Because he holds many patents in the neural stem cell field, Weiss also founded Neurospheres Holdings Ltd. to protect these patents.

Between his role at the institute and his involvement in these companies, it all adds up to keep Dr. Weiss a very busy man with available time to spend in the lab at a premium.

“Certainly I’ve had to become a bit of a better steward of my time, but even still the science is the most exciting element of what I do and that will never change. I’m in and out of the lab regularly because it’s part of what gets my juices going, I mean you’ve got to be able to stay connected to the science, that’s what it’s all about.”

And even though it takes him away from the lab, he still enjoys his role with the institute, bringing groups of people together, and most of all communicating the institute’s successes to the community.

“The brain is the final frontier. It’s the most elusive and it’s probably the most distinct between individuals and I think that for most people, being able to have a healthy mind and healthy neurological function is paramount to quality of life. So the challenge of understanding the most complex element of our being coupled with how important it is to keep it healthy, it makes it pretty easy to get up in the morning and try to drive all of our efforts towards the best possible ends.”