Ormond MacDougald Interviewed by David Bradley
Posted March 2, 2001 · Issue 97

Born	September 30, 1963, Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Position	Assistant Professor of Physiology, University of Michigan School of Medicine
Biography	B.Sc. (Agr): 1982-1986 University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Ph.D.: 1988-1992 Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, under Donald B. Jump. Postdoc: 1992-1996 Department of Biological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, in the laboratory of M. Daniel Lane. MacDougald arrived at the University of Michigan in 1995 and established his laboratory in the Physiology Department.
Research interests	Molecular basis for adipogenesis and obesity. The focus of the MacDougald Laboratory is the study of the transcription factor C/EBPa and its relationship to adipocyte differentiation. Recent work has focused on the regulatory role of Wnt-signaling in adipogenesis.

What was the key event that pushed you into research?

I was planning on going home to the farm where I grew up to form a partnership with my brother. However, in my third year at the University of Guelph, having just had a summer of hitchhiking through Europe, I became captivated by the challenge of school and the challenge of discovering new knowledge . . . the rest is history.

Who was your most influential teacher?

Robin Etches was the most influential teacher during my undergraduate degree. He introduced me to research, and his excitement for the process of discovery was very infectious. He challenged us in our classes to perform at our absolute highest levels. I remember that for one of his exams, he handed out 29 questions for us to prepare answers for one week prior to the exam. At the time of the exam, we each went into his office, pulled out one of the 29 questions from a hat, and then presented a ten-minute seminar on the topic, and answered questions for five minutes. It was the most challenging task I had faced up to that point in my life. Doing well on that exam gave me a great deal of confidence in myself academically.

What about after graduation?

M. Daniel Lane was my postdoctoral advisor and was (and continues to be) a terrific mentor to me. He cares about his people and their professional developments in a way that most researchers do not. Because of that, there is a long line of well-trained, successful postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students from his lab spread throughout the web of science. Almost everywhere I travel, I run into someone from his lab, or someone with a good friend trained in his lab.

Which research paper has had the most effect on your work?

Howard Green's 1971 Cell paper, in which he derived and did the initial characterization of the 3T3-L1 and 3T3-F442A preadipocyte lines, on which I worked during my Ph.D., my postdoctoral work, and now as a faculty member.

Who awarded you your first grant and what was it for?

The National Institutes of Health granted me my first big grant (RO1) to study the importance of phosphorylation of C/EBPa in adipocytes. My first ever grant was a $250 "grant in aid of research" from the Sigma Xi to support my doctoral work on the regulation of S14 in the liver.

What was your best experiment?

Without a doubt, the experiment performed by Sarah Ross, my first graduate student, in which she showed that ectopic expression of Wnt blocks the differentiation of preadipocytes into adipocytes, and that inhibition of endogenous Wnt signaling leads to spontaneous adipogenesis.

What qualities do you need to be a successful researcher?

I think all good scientists are smart and imaginative and creative and highly motivated. Beyond that, you need different qualities at different times in your career. During the time that you are at the bench you need to be doggedly persistent and determined, because part of laboratory science involves dealing with technical difficulties, and the unfortunate truth that even your best hypotheses are usually proven false by big, old, ugly facts. It is also important to have a very strong work ethic, and to work carefully and meticulously. As you develop in your career to the point where the bench science is largely performed by others, it is helpful to have good people skills and to be able to motivate and inspire people. Even later in one's career, perhaps in a departmental chair or other leadership post, it is important to be politically savvy if you are going to be successful at seeing your much larger ideas and visions realized.

If you could work with any scientist (historical or current), who would it be?

Hmm . . . that is definitely a tough one. Historically, perhaps Pasteur or Darwin. Currently, perhaps Brown and Goldstein at the University of Texas Southwestern.

What is your greatest unanswered scientific question?

The molecular basis for obesity.

What scientific plans do you have for the next five years?

I hope to use microarray analyses to define the complete cascade of gene expression that occurs when preadipocytes go through the differentiation process to adipocytes. I also hope to test the importance of Wnt signaling in adipocyte development in vivo using transgenic and knockout animal models.

David Bradley, a freelance science writer, lives on the edge of the fens north of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Elemental Discoveries is his Webzine of science news.

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