THIS IS YOUR LIZARD ON DRUGS

Clark Lindgren, Biology, Is Conducting Research On Lizards To Further
Investigate How Nerves In The Brain Communicate And Discovered That
Endocannabanoid Occurs Naturally In The Human Body

Clark Lindgren, Biology, took a circuitous scientific route to teaching and
researching biology-first studying physics, then physiology, then
neurobiology and finally joining the Grinnell Biology department in 1992.

Now his career has taken another unexpected turn. His most recent research
concerns a chemical dear to many college students: cannabis.

This year, Lindgren is on his third sabbatical and is researching an area
so new that he and his student research assistant, Zach Newman '08, have
had to construct their own equipment.

All of Lindgren's research revolves around deciphering the way nerves in
the brain communicate, a job that requires dissecting hundreds of lizards,
isolating certain nerves and seeing how they react to electrical stimulation.

"The really interesting thing that we've just discovered is that [a
naturally occurring chemical] muscarine causes the release of another
chemical, endocannabanoid," he said. "I don't know if you've heard the word
cannabanoid. Have you heard of cannabis?"

The active ingredient in marijuana is a naturally occurring chemical in the
human body, so nerves in the brain are naturally receptive to it. Bodies
react physiologically and humans feel high when they consume cannabis.

"We don't have that receptor because we were one day discovering we could
smoke grass," Lindgren said. "But it certainly explains why it can have
such a profound effect on mood, on memories, on all those things."

It took scientists so long to discover this phenomena because cannabis is
fat-soluble, making it very difficult to work with in the lab. Over the
summer, Lindgren and Newman set up the research lab by hodge-podging
together a fluorescence microscope, a digital camera and a metal tray
called "The Robot."

In the midst of the nuts, bolts and wires of the expensive lab machinery,
Lindgren points to a small clip held together with donated dental wax. That
miniscule clip suspends a lizard nerve in the center of the machines. "This
is where the biology happens," Lindgren said.

The work with cannabis and lizard nerves is helping to explain why the
human brain works the way it does. Lindgren describes the communication
between brain nerves as a conversation.

"But when we have all the nerves in the brain, it's like a party ... there
are so many conversations going on at once that you can't understand what
anyone is saying," Lindgren said. "But what if you could take two of those
people at the party and put them in a separate room all by themselves? Then
you could study their conversation."

Discovering that the human mind is naturally receptive to the active
ingredient in marijuana is one step toward figuring out that larger
conversation.

Lindgren arrived at the junction of lizards and cannabis after many years
of schooling. He began at Wheaton College as a physics major. But during
one memorable lab involving the dissection and electrical stimulation of
frog nerves, he fell in love with physiology.

"If there was ever an 'Ah-ha!' moment, it was then, when I walked into the
lab and actually saw on this instrument the phenomena of nerve impulse,"
Lindgren said. "I can't really describe it in words, but it was sort of
like this really deep connection between a phenomena that's responsible for
how brains work ... and you're able to look at it with the same sort of
device you would use to troubleshoot your radio if it was broken."

Lindgren has spent his life studying this intersection between technology
and biological life.

The author of his physiology textbook had an M.D., so Lindgren decided he,
too, would go to medical school.

"I was totally clueless ... I went off thinking medical school was going to
be the answer to my intellectual yearnings ? I knew where I wanted to end
up, but I didn't know how to get there."

Lindgren soon got his education sorted out and graduated with a Ph.D. in
physiology and took up postdoctoral schooling at Duke.

After a few months of pre-graduation panic when his job applications turned
up no offers, Lindgren found a position at Allegheny College in
Pennsylvania and three years later moved to Grinnell.

"I thought the most intellectually stimulating thing a scientist could do
was be a researcher, but ? Students come in and ask questions that nobody
would ever ask, because they're not quite as blinded by the theories and
the preconceived notions of people in the field."

Lindgren's current research has not yet been published, but he hopes it
will appear in the Journal of Physiology before the end of the year.