TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 7 6 6 TMC Spotlight MAURO FERRARI, PH.D., president and CEO of Houston Methodist Research Institute, is known for his revolutionary treatment of cancer using nanotechnology. Ferrari spoke with Pulse about 'disciplinary fracking,' what soothes his soul, and why he identifies with the butler from Downton Abbey. Q | You're an avid marathon runner, which requires a lot of mental and physical discipline. How does that discipline translate to your research? A | Running is a metaphor for cancer research in the sense that rule No. 1 is you don't stop. No matter what happens, you keep on going. That's what it takes. Now, to bring true innovation to the clinic, it's a journey of many, many years. Incremental innovation can go a little bit faster, but, of course, incremental innovation hasn't cured metastatic disease yet. To cure metastatic disease, you need to be able to think of things that are truly different—starting from scratch—and refuse to die and keep on going. Q | How many marathons have you run? A | About 30, but I take my time. One reason why I think I like it so much is it's easier than any day in the office. Also, I'm not very good at it. That's the import- ant part. I think it teaches you humility. I like to run what they call 'ultra-marathons' up mountains. I've done marathons with a total elevation gain of 12,000 feet. It's a mystical experience. The lon- gest one I've done, the 100K (62 miles), took me about 16.5 hours. Everybody is able to celebrate when they win. If it comes easy, boom, you do it again and you do it again. Learning comes from slogging through things you are having a hard time doing. I think that's a good lesson. Q | I understand your first wife, Marialuisa, passed away from cancer while you were a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. How did that personal tragedy shape your life and career? A | I don't know what the meaning of life is. I don't think anyone does. But I have this sneaking suspicion that it's got something to do with turning one's own pain and suffering into good things for others. Q | How did you meet your wife Paola? A | I knew Paola even before I knew Marialuisa. We are from the same small part of the same small town up in the mountains of Italy. We went to the same high school, though she's a few years younger than I am. She had come to the U.S. independently to be a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, working at the United Nations. The two of us—the three of us, including Marialuisa—come from very humble backgrounds. Nobody in our three families had ever been to college, so this was a major step in breaking away from tradition. Q | How so? A | We have steel mills in our town, and that was a traditional place of occupation for everybody. It was either that or the military. My family was military. I was the black sheep of the family; I went to college. I was really focused and got my Ph.D. from

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