CIRM Working Group Member Wins a MacArthur

Born in Normal, Ill., one of six children, he is a mountain climber who was freaked out by medical school. So he became one of the most skillful mouse cloners in the country, according to those who know.

He is Kevin Eggan, also a member of the Standards Working Group of the California stem cell agency. And today he became one of the winners, at age 32, of the MacArthur Foundation grants given each year to the quite bright.

Eggan's official occupation is principal investigator at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

He recently said:

"Doing a nuclear transplant is like playing the most difficult video game in the world. Imagine building your own Xbox before you play, and the game hardly works. It's like in Super Mario Brothers, where you have to do it over and over again until you master it."

As a MacArthur fellow, he will receive $500,000 over the next five years.

For more on Eggan, see the following stories: Mouse cloner, mountain climber and French cook and medical school refugee.