第一次教訓:勤記筆記

有時候,第一次見面、第一句話、第一次教訓,可以記一輩子。
Bruce Tempel(1956-2021)不幸於65歲去世。
2021年疫情期間,我們的導師Lily Jan(葉公杼)郵件告知大家的時候,我不能相信,所以也不敢問去世的原因。
昨天因為給一位低年級研究生講怎麼做學生,用了Bruce的一句話,才上網查,更加驚訝:Bruce居然是阿茲海默/老年痴呆。就在他的紀念網頁留言。
Bruce是醫生的孩子,普林斯頓大學的博士,UCSF葉/詹實驗室的博士後。博士後期間,他是葉/詹實驗室三位主要克隆鉀離子通道基因(Shaker)的主力博士後之一。他後來長期在西雅圖華盛頓大學任教。另外兩位是Diane Papazian(後來長期在洛杉磯加州大學任教)、Tom Schwarz(後來任教斯坦福和哈佛)。
1985年,我去舊金山加州大學的第一個研究輪轉在Zach Hall的實驗室,1986年我進入詹裕農/葉公杼兩位老師的實驗室,在他們指導下完成博士研究。
在神經生物學,詹/葉實驗室是進入分子神經生物學的先驅,他們的博後不僅個個履歷金光閃閃(哈佛博士好幾位、普林斯頓…),而且人才濟濟,分子生物學也在全世界前列。
自然,Zach讓我去找他們學習。他專門寫下Jan lsb兩位博士後的不同名字:Bruce Tempel、Leslie Timpe。讓我這個外國來的渾小子不要搞混了。
Bruce可能是教我怎麼做nick translation,同位素標記DNA探針。後來用了可能十幾年。
但是,我記得更清楚的是他對我的教訓。他顯然不滿意我徒手聽他、不動聲色看他怎麼做實驗。他提醒說:你一定要記筆記。因為同一個事情,沒有人會教你兩次。
呆頭呆腦的我,立即記住,記了一輩子:要勤記筆記。
昨天我在實驗室給低年級研究生說的就是這個意思。
後來我在Jan lab做研究生,當然接觸Bruce更多,但他給的第一句教誨,不僅影響我一生,我也經常提醒學生。
Bruce這麼年輕逝於老年痴呆,我正好加入了努力致力於治療阿茲海默病的研究行列,希望能夠有助於目前幾千萬病人(2050年預計超過一億病人),讓我們都立下超過百歲的目標。
英文原文(中文為意譯,與英文有差異):
When Bruce was a postdoc at UCSF in the Jan lab, I was a first year graduate student doing my first rotation in the laboratory of Dr. Zach Hall. Zach sent me to learn some molecular biology in the Jan lab. Molecular biology means cloning genes and was the technique of the that period then. I am trying to remember exactly what I learned from Bruce: it might be nick translation, making radioactive probes for DNA. Not only he showed me how to do it which I used for quite a few years, but he gave one very clear message which I remember for life. He saw that I was not taking notes, and told me: “you should take notes when learning from others. No one will teach you the same thing twice”. It is a simple but important lesson which I try to remind my students when they learn from other students. In fact, I just told one new student yesterday, which is why I searched online for Bruce Tempel, whose name was first written down to me by Zach Hall. I later joined the Jan lab and had more interactions. I also remember we all attending the wedding of Ethan Bier and Kathryn Burton. But the first message and his help stuck in my then young mind. I am very surprised when Lily emailed me about the passing of Bruce and could not believe it. I hope to join the efforts to try to find an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease so tens of millions of patients now (and more than a hundred million expected in 2050) will not pass so young and can live to much older and healthier age: let’s all aim for over a hundred as the new normal. 


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