Courtesy of Medill Reports Chicago, a new service of Northwestern University.
by Dennis Foster Mickley
It’s 5:45 a.m., and Dr. Jack Kessler opens the door to his neurology lab at Northwestern University, as he has every weekday since 2001.
He sits down at his computer to review any questions from his researchers and answer a host of emails. His computer background is a smiling photograph of his 24-year-old daughter Allison and a framed portrait of his family hangs above the computer.
By 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. when he just can’t leave the research – he heads home to his family and later reads and plans the next day’s work on regenerating damaged spines.
Kessler, director of the Neuroscience Institute of Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, is one of the leading stem cell researchers in the country.
“This becomes an obsession,” Kessler said with blazing enthusiasm. “This becomes the driving force of life. It’s a very personal issue now.”
As with many consuming passions, this strength was born of tragedy. In 2001, Allison, crushed her spinal cord after a ski jump resulted in a hard landing on her back. The injury caused paralysis from the waist down. From that moment on, Kessler shifted all his research – previously 24 years focused on diabetes – towards a new, singular purpose: researching stem cells with the intention of rebuilding lives after spinal injuries.
“The thing about his work is that it’s never done,” Allison said. “There’s never one giant break through, but that doesn’t affect his focus.”
Kessler spends a great deal of his time doing what he calls “politicking” – acting as an advocate and fundraiser for stem cell research, building awareness, and making what is often a dry and divisive political battle over stem cells. He has testified at congressional hearings, lectured at universities, and tried to “show the real, human side of the hard science.”
The trouble is that stem cell research requires a comprehensive, large-scale effort and politics gets in the way of that. Kessler said it requires “a kind of collaboration that’s impossible right now – nobody’s good enough to do it alone. We’re just focusing on a piece – an important piece, but a piece.”
Allison is also pursuing a medical career and will graduate from Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 2012. Despite the heavy demands that medical school places upon its students, she said her father – who has “read everything, and can quote everybody” – might still be her most exacting instructor.
“If there’s something I don’t understand, I’ll call him. He’s a great teacher, but he won’t just give you the answer. He’s always asking, so what do you already know? What have you read?” she said. “He always wants you to put the work in to truly understand.”
Chian-Yu Peng, a research assistant professor who works with Kessler on analyzing the relevance and possibly use of proteins that can repair bones to mitigate spinal trauma, Jack set a similar example of personal and professional conduct at the lab, said Peng.
“His clinical background provides a real world relevance on the questions that we are investigating,” Peng said. “And on a daily basis, he is very open and direct person that really encourages the free exchange of ideas.”
But despite his commitment to his work, his tireless advocacy for stem cell research and the endless hours in the lab – his heart remains with his family.
“He has four kids and two grandkids, and his favorite thing is having his family at the house,” Allison said. “If you’re under his roof, he knows you’re okay.”
Find out more more about Jack and Allison Kessler in the 2007 documentary, Terra Incognita, produced by Kartemquin Films in Chicago..
