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World-renowned neuroscientist and McGill alumnus Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne spoke to an audience of science undergraduates on Friday evening. Tessier-Lavigne was formerly executive vice president of research for the biotechnology firm Genentech, and is now president of The Rockefeller University, a prestigious university in Manhattan devoted to research in the biological sciences.

The talk, hosted by the Science Undergraduate Society as part of their Academia Week, focused on Tessier-Lavigne’s career and his work investigating the wiring of neural circuits during development—pivotal research in the field of neuroscience. 

Over the course of his physics degree at McGill, Tessier-Lavigne became interested in the biological sciences, and chose to use his Rhodes scholarship to complete a second undergraduate degree at Oxford in physiology and philosophy. From there, he went on to complete a PhD in neuroscience from University College London.  

He concluded his talk by discussing a major obstacle facing neuroscientists today—the age-old problem of regeneration in the central nervous system, or CNS, which consists of the brain and spinal cord. Unlike nerves in the peripheral nervous system, outside of the spinal cord, severed projections in the CNS cannot regenerate and neural activity is lost after nerve damage from injury, stroke, or disease.

Tessier-Lavigne ended on a quote by late-19th century neuroscientist Ramón y Cajal, who, despite having just come to the harsh conclusion that recovery is not possible in the CNS, maintained an optimistic view of future progress.

“‘It is for the science of the future,’ for all of you, ‘to change, if possible, this harsh decree. Inspired with high ideals, [science] must work to impede or moderate gradual decay of neurons,'” he said, quoting Cajal. 

“I hope that the [recent developments shown] will make you agree that in this prediction, like so many others, Cajal was on the money.”

In the open question and answer session that followed, participants asked Tessier-Lavigne about his view of the future of the field of neuroscience, the differences he observed between working in both academia and industry, and even how he felt about his time at McGill.

“My professors [at McGill] were incredibly supportive,” he said. “What was very striking was they really cared about the students … I spent hours talking to professors …  as you can see I jumped around a lot—physics, philosophy, physiology. I can assure you I bent a lot of ears. I got a huge amount of mentoring. There’s some great science happening here—there’s just a great tradition in so many different departments.”

“There are similarities and differences with academia,” he said of his time at Genentech. “The major difference of course is that for the bulk of your work, it’s not something that you just decide to do. It’s negotiated—it’s a collective enterprise and people have to agree on the goals. So you have to be excited about the mission of the company and believe in the mission of the company. If you’re of the phenotype that can agree with that, it can be the best thing in the world … I loved both, and I found it exhilarating at Genentech.”

“Be open to the fact that you might be looking for one thing at one stage in your career and something different at another stage,” he said.