Ptashne got his start in research as a high school student working in a neurology lab for a family friend, during which he published two papers on the anti seizual effects of dilantin, a drug commonly used to treat patients with epilepsy.

Faced with the choice between attending Reed or Harvard for college. Ptashne opted for Reed.

"I had the instinct that I wasn't self confident enough to throw myself into a situation which I perceived to be more impersonal," he says.

At Reed. Ptashne says he loved with the idea of medical school and changed his major to philosophy, but ultimately decided to become a scientist after working in a fruit fly genetics lab.

Coming to Harvard as a graduate student in 1961. Ptashne says he was surprised to discover that Reed was more academically rigorous tha Harvard.

"The rigors of Reed in those days were quite extraordinary," Ptashne says "One of the shocking things of coming here was realizing how much easier it was to get through Harvard than Reed."

Principles, Not Pedantics

Ptashne, who now helps teach Bio Sec I, says he stresses concepts in the classroom.

"Students should be able to sit with a small number of pages and see how the whole thing works as a matter of engineering principles," Ptashe says. "You want to grasp the principles because they're not that hard to understand ad once you understand them, they're to easy to forget because they make a coherent whole."

"If students can grasp these fundamental principles then they can grasp the astounding intellectual advances that have been made in the field." Ptashne says. "My problem is to make that narrative vivid."

A Successful-Entrepreneur

Ptashne's success is not continued to the scientific and musical realms he is also a brilliant entrepreneur.

In 1980, Ptashne teamed up with Thomas P. Maniatis, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology to found the Genetics Institute, a local biotechnology company which produces various growth factors and hormones. After serving as a scientific adviser for the company for 11 years, Ptashne left the firm in 1991.

The Genetics Institute now employs over 1,000 people and earned over $1.30 million in revenue last year.

Initially the company was supposed to be a point venture with Harvard. Ptashne says. But Harvard's involvement stirred up controversy, leading former President Bok to withdraw from the project.

"Bok sought me out and asked me if I would start a company with Harvard," Ptashne says "As things got closer to being finalized, Harvard dropped out for a variety of real and managed reasons and form and I continued on