Gerd Kempermann took up science for the thrill of discovery and found success by tackling biology's complexity head-on rather than trying to circumvent it. See CV

Kempermann trained as a medical doctor at the University Medical Center Freiburg in his native Germany and, fascinated with the brain, he pursued graduate work in neuropathology. His decision to do a postdoc with Fred Gage at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, proved pivotal. Gage had developed a method to manipulate neurons in disease models. But Kempermann's proposed grant work based on this methodology seemed passé; signs of adult stem-cell formation, or neurogenesis, were more tantalizing. So Kempermann sought direct proof. Working with Gage, he stumbled on a way to study how physical activity, as well as genetics, affects neurogenesis. “I came to the right lab with the wrong proposal,” he says.

Together with Robert Williams at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, he investigated the natural variation seen in adult neurogenesis.

“Gerd launched into a massive undertaking,” says Williams. The four-year, 50-strain panel screening for the genetic basis of variation in neurogenesis could have been a career-killer, he adds. “Most scientists, particularly postdocs, like to find a unique phenotype in one strain of engineered mouse and get a top paper quickly.” Although they didn't identify the genes responsible for neurogenesis variation, they found evidence for the complex structure of genetic networks controlling the process.

Back in Germany, Kempermann continued describing how exercise and the environment direct neurogenesis, first at Regensburg University, then at Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. This month, he will take up a professorship studying the genomics of regeneration at the Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden — a collaborative collective of local research groups. “The opportunity to enter a pioneering situation, building a new institute, is one that you rarely get,” he says.

Kempermann is pragmatic about the ethical problems connected to human embryonic stem cells. An adviser on stem-cell policy to the German government, Kempermann tempers the current focus on engineering stem cells by advocating research that will help unravel the complex biological puzzles of tissue development. “Gerd is able to navigate the dangerous hype-infested waters of this research area — he's a sceptical optimist,” says Williams.