Dr. Teepu Siddique is a physician who specializes in
neuromuscular medicine and neurology at Northwestern Medicine. He also is a professor
of Neurology at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, and he conducts
research at the medical school as the head of the Les Turner ALS Foundation research
laboratory. Most of his research surrounds studying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou
Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is fatal
and generally results in the death of those suffering with ALS within 3-5 years
of symptom onset.
ALS
currently has no cure, and Dr. Siddique has been studying it for more than 40
years of his life, trying to find a cure. In short, Dr. Siddique is a remarkable
man. He is a world-renowned physician who identified the first genetic cause of
ALS, as well as created the first animal models of ALS. He is considered the biggest
pioneer in the field of ALS research. I currently study ALS at Loyola University
Chicago, and I have been fortunate enough to have worked with Dr. Siddique in
his laboratory at the Feinberg School of Medicine last summer. Working with
him, I was able witness parts of his creative process and what makes him such a
“pro-c” creative in his field as well as a “Big C” creative.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/18279916/1639187214.jpg)
Dr.
Siddique had one clear goal from the start of his career as a researcher: “I came
[to Northwestern] to organize something that was unique and unusual - which was
to create a seamless environment between bench and bedside, to bring the clinic
and the laboratory together.” In this way, Dr. Siddique was able to revolutionize
the field of research as a whole by successfully splitting time and effort
between his ALS clinic and laboratory. From Dr. Siddique, I saw first-hand how
the medical field can evolve. Moreover, progressing his research was a goal
that came from his motivation to improve his patients’ lives. The motivation
can be classified as intrinsic, because although his desire was for others, it came
from a genuine and intrinsic desire to better others’ lives.
Part
of my internship in the summer of 2018 required me to attend and present at the
weekly lab meetings as well as discuss different neuroscience articles at a
weekly journal club. At the lab meetings, Dr. Siddique would always ask me if I
discovered something new and interesting. The notable part of these meetings,
however, was what would happen when our experiments failed or garnered unexpected
results. He would always ask “what did you learn from these mistakes (or
results)? What do you plan on doing with this information?” The point Dr.
Siddique was trying to raise is that failures or roadblocks were simply a
different means to success. His major discoveries came from constant trials and
errors. Furthermore, he refused to drop a project just because it did not gain
the expected results. Rather, most of the extraordinary results were gained
from the failed hypotheses or byproducts of initial experiments. Moreover, Dr.
Siddique displayed an ability to find patterns within scattered information: “This
discovery [of finding the central mechanism by which degeneration occurs in ALS]
came to me when one evening I was looking at the pathology of sporadic cases, and
in each case we found the same thing.” In sum, Dr. Siddique is a clear example
of divergent thinking, as his process was using the supposedly useless
information and changing his viewpoint in order to gain unexpected results.
Additionally,
collaboration seems to be a clear aspect of his creative process. Working in
his lab, I interacted with many researchers who specialize in very different
fields and topics all coming together for a common goal. The weekly lab
meetings and discussions frequently resulted in new ideas and discoveries
because different viewpoints and expertise interacted. What occurred in the laboratory
parallels the ideas found in both the New Yorker piece The Two Friends Who Changed How We Think About How We Think as well
as the Wired article Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience
of Screwing Up. Dr. Siddique spoke to the importance of having
collaboration — he needed other people to challenge his ideas and thoughts, and
to bring in new concepts and suggestions he did not see as a neuroscience physician.
Overall, I believe that Dr. Siddique can be classified as
a “Big C” creative because he not only revolutionized the field of ALS research,
but he also transformed the medical field and the research fields in their entireties;
he did this by changing how the two can be intertwined and truly showing that
they can interact together seamlessly. Dr. Siddique showed me that a physician
can impact patients’ lives beyond the clinic and hospital and display creativity
in a way that can transform thousands of lives.
References:
I think that the connection between clinical experience and laboratory work is incredibly important. I feel that expertise in your field (in Dr. Siddique's case the clinical side of ALS) is essential for being able to diverge from what is already known and discover potential cures. Dr. Siddique's work is a great example of this.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is incredible that Northwestern Medicine provides Dr. Siddique with a platform to both perform his clinical care as well as laboratory research. With a mind like his, it is crucial that he is allowed to work in both domains in concert. In my own experience, I had shadowed a surgeon during surgery and at the end of it all, she looked back and asked every resident, nurse, and medical student in the room what they learned and what they would do differently to improve on for the next time around. Dr. Siddique's method of questioning and analyzing his process as he is going along. I believe it is essential that physicians and scientists stay on their toes and reflection is a great way to do so.
ReplyDelete