Brainy Teen Explores Brain’s Mysteries

SHERMAN OAKS — The lead name on a research paper submitted to the prestigious Endocrine Society was not familiar to Dr. Lorraine Fitzpatrick. But she admired the work.

The paper suggested that a natural protein, neuregulin, might play a role in stimulating brain cells to reproduce.

“That’s exciting,” said Fitzpatrick, a professor at the Mayo Clinic as well as a consultant to the Endocrine Society. “If we could figure out how to make brain cells divide, it could mean a great deal in working with brain injuries of all kinds--strokes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries.”

The research paper, submitted to the society from a UCLA laboratory, stops far short of being able to prove that a method for brain cell reproduction has been found. But it suggests that neuregulin could play a significant role in finding a way to produce new cells to replace those that have been injured.

“It’s a small step in science,” Fitzpatrick said. “But it’s a giant step in the right direction.”

The lead researcher on the paper was identified only as C. Pietras. Fitzpatrick had no way of knowing Pietras didn’t fit the usual profile of a working scientist. Indeed, Pietras’ presence at the society’s upcoming annual meeting, where he will discuss his findings, will probably raise some eyebrows.

Christopher Pietras is 17 years old.

When he began this research project, he had just finished his junior year in high school in Studio City. He still lives with his parents in Sherman Oaks.

When told Christopher’s age, Fitzpatrick paused only a second and then blurted out, “This does my heart good!”

Then she laughed. “The fact that there are students willing to take on a challenge like this,” she said, “well, all I can say is that it’s very refreshing.

“Who is this kid?”

He is a tall, lanky, affable guy who does not fit another stereotype--that of the brainy nerd who spends too much time in windowless rooms. Currently in his senior year at the private Harvard-Westlake High School, Christopher is taking advanced courses in psychology and studio art, and he’s the top student in the jujitsu class (he’s scheduled to get his black belt in July). His grade-point average for the year is 4.4--more than the usual maximum of 4 because he earns extra points by taking advanced-placement classes.

He’s also trained in shiatsu massage, an outgrowth of his interest in Asian martial arts.

Luckily, even with all this going for him at such a young age, it’s hard to hate him. Chris has an infectious smile and speaks with great enthusiasm on a variety of topics.

“This is a super-smart kid,” said Dr. Mark Pegram, a researcher at the Jonsson Cancer Center at UCLA, where Christopher did his research. “But he’s also such a nice guy, so easygoing. It was nice to have him around.”

If all the adulation Chris has earned is going to his head, he certainly doesn’t show it. “This has been so much fun,” he said, flashing the smile. “Finding conclusions in science is a really wonderful thing.”

It all started because Christopher wanted to determine if the alleged healing benefits of shiatsu could be scientifically proven.

“I wanted to see if acupressure works on the molecular level,” he said. “I’ve been seriously training in shiatsu since the 10th grade. My sensei and I talked about the possibility of proving its effects, scientifically.”

His sensei, or teacher, is Stephen Copping. At Harvard-Westlake, known for its high academic standards and superb facilities, Copping has taught martial arts and related subjects for 12 years.

“Of all the people I have taught, he’s the best,” Copping said of Christopher. “He is one of the rare students who has both talent and perseverance. Usually, it’s one or the other.”

Chris readily admitted that he has connections far beyond those of the average student wanting to dabble in science. Both his parents are doctors and researchers associated with UCLA Medical Center. Pegram is a good friend of his family and made sure that when Chris volunteered at the medical center, he got placed in Pegram’s own lab as an assistant.

At first, Christopher did a lot of grunt work to help out at the lab and learn, and he got in the habit of reading highly technical science journals. “It took me a long time just to read a two-page article,” Christopher said, but he picked up much of the lingo and basic lab procedures.

He was trying to devise ways of doing his shiatsu tests when he and Pegram began talking about recent studies that showed certain brain cells might be able to reproduce. Pegram suggested it would be interesting to see if one of the body’s known growth factors had an effect on these cells.

Christopher agreed. “I decided this would be more important,” he said.

They decided to use neuregulin, a natural protein that occurs in the human body, for the experiments, “partly because we had some around,” Pegram said.

Under the guidance of Pegram and his main lab assistant, Nancy Wongvipat, Chris began by culturing human nerve cells and searching for those known as neuron precursors--young cells thought to be the best candidates for reproducing.

“It’s very difficult to do,” Pegram said. “Takes a lot of time. It’s painstaking work.”

During the weeks the cultures were being grown, Chris was in the lab even on weekends to check the progress of the cultures. “It was interesting to me,” he said. “I didn’t mind spending time there.”

With the cells established and healthy, it was time to add some neuregulin to the cells. Christopher and Pegram were looking for two results.

The first was to see if the protein affected the cells’ neurites--tendril-like outgrowths that enable cells to communicate with each other. The neurites are so small they can be viewed only with an electron microscope, but at the time of these experiments, the one owned by UCLA Medical Center was broken.

No problem. Christopher took his cultures to the electron microscope at Harvard-Westlake, which has a better-equipped lab than the best labs found in many countries.

There he was able to show that the cells treated with neuregulin had larger and more extended neurites, suggesting that they could relate more readily to other cells. This meant that, even if the cells did not reproduce, the addition of the protein might be making communication among them more efficient.

Back at UCLA, he tested for DNA synthesis, the process a cell uses to duplicate its components.

“When cells are going through DNA synthesis, it normally means they are going to divide soon,” Christopher said.

Only a regular microscope was needed to show that the cells used in the experiment had, in the words of the paper that Christopher and Pegram later wrote, “increased DNA synthesis . . . to five times control levels.”

It would take further, complex experimentation--yet to be carried out--to show that these treated cells would actually divide. Therefore, Christopher’s findings, Pegram stressed, were intriguing but not in the breakthrough category.

In a statement issued by UCLA describing the experiment, Pegram cautioned, “This is very important to understand--until Chris or another scientist takes that all-important next step of finding a biochemical signal to make neurons divide, Chris’ work must be considered preliminary.

“It is important basic science, but at this point it is in no way applicable to clinical medicine.”

Christopher hopes that when he spreads the news of his findings at the Endocrine Society’s meeting next month in Minneapolis--where he and numerous other researchers will be checking out each other’s findings--a scientist will find it intriguing enough to expand on the work.

In the meantime, Chris is getting ready to go to college. He has enrolled at UC Berkeley, where he plans to take a number of science courses. He’ll probably eventually end up in medical school, he said, but given his wide range of interests, he’s keeping his options open.

“I just don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said with a smile. All he is counting on at the moment is that after his months of lab experiments and arduous workload at Harvard-Westlake, Berkeley will not be so hard.

“I’m going to have fun in college,” he said. “It will be a relief.”