7 One of the areas where there are great strides being made is at the intersection of neuroscience and genetics. Our ability to use vectors to do gene editing is allowing us to tackle diseases in a way that we couldn’t for a long time. Many of the diseases we’re focused on here are rare, monogenetic diseases, and now, we can build models of these diseases in mice. What does this mean? We can get into even greater detail, giving us the ability to bring new treatments into clinical trials. Already there have been completely exceptional successes on this front—diseases that have afflicted us for centuries. I have real hope that we can reverse these problems. Last year, philanthropist Tom Golisano made a $50 million gift to establish the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Institute (IDD), where you will serve as director. What does this mean for people with IDD in our local and regional communities? Oftentimes, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities have really complex health issues – pulmonary, cardiac, movement. They’re a lot sicker than individuals without an intellectual and developmental disability, and that presents a very specific healthcare challenge. We want to bring solutions to these people; we want to look for new treatment therapies and possible cures. So how do we deliver a standard of care that a neurotypical person would expect? The way forward is for us to find a solution for these folks to create easier access to healthcare. I will say, we do really well with those we can see, but there are so many more on our waiting list. This gift will allow us to create more space, bring in more providers, and train future providers with the specialized skills they need to care for this population of patients. Mr. Golisano’s commitment is more than a transformative gift—it’s the recognition of decades of work that have gone into building a world class organization. People have worked hard to generate the best standards of care, and this gift recognizes the role that IDD clinics play in establishing and delivering that level of care. Currently, you serve as the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Chair in Neuroscience. What does it mean to you to have an endowed professorship? I must say, it’s a bit like winning an Oscar for an academic; it’s the last major honor and recognition of your work. But more than anything else, it provides money for my lab to pursue the big ideas that might change the course of these diseases—to “swing for the fences.” Federal funds are inherently conservative because you need to produce results that prove your hypothesis. If you know it needs to work, you find yourself pursuing safer and safer projects. Funds from an endowment operate in a different way. There’s an expansiveness that allows you to take risks. Rochester students, faculty, and staff are fueled by Meliora—the pursuit of “ever better” in all they do. What does Meliora mean to you? To me, Meliora is about striving for excellence—the search for the truth—which is also the beauty of science. When an experiment doesn’t work, it’s natural to feel disappointed, but it’s not a disappointment at all. The world works the way the world works. Our job is to come up with an idea and test that. Whether we’re right or wrong, we’re adding to the knowledge on that particular topic. As long as we’re pursuing knowledge, we’re on the right path. Building a skill set that is rooted in rational thought, logic, reason—these are the things a great university provides for a young mind. My hope is that if we train enough rational people, we’ll end up with a much more rational world. That’s what gets you to ever better.”
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