Eric Kandel (left) and Pouya Jamshidi.

Kandel also admits to pleasant surprise that he and Jamshidi turned out to have so much in common: “He's extremely engaged in the science and very serious. But he's also very cultured. Unlike most kids of his generation, for example, he likes the music I like”—both are opera aficionados—“and not only that, he's much more knowledgeable about it than I am.” (Before he emigrated, Jamshidi, at 20, was the assistant conductor of the Tehran Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.)

Jamshidi, who has been working in a nerve growth factor lab at UCSD, spent the summer studying similar growth factors in Kandel's signature animal model, the giant sea slug Aplysia californica, as part of HHMI's Exceptional Research Opportunities Program. He has been invited to return to Kandel's lab after he graduates. Once there, he plans to start the translation project and begin contacting academic publishers in Tehran, from whom he expects “a very positive reaction.”

Long term, he plans to apply to M.D./Ph.D. programs, with hopes of doing neuroscience within a neurosurgery practice at a teaching hospital. At UCSD's Center for Neural Repair he's been participating in animal surgeries to optimize nerve growth factor gene delivery; the techniques could one day lead to treatments for nerve injuries and even neurodegenerative diseases in humans. “In the future these kinds of therapies are probably going to be delivered by neurosurgeons,” notes lab director Mark Tuszynski.

Jamshidi feels the tug of pure neuroscience but finds the blend with a medical career a better fit with his passions. “I love doing surgeries but I also love studying the brain,” he says.

Photo: Pouya Jamshidi

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