According to a recent article in USA Today, A Swimming Scientist Len Zon’s gene studies on zebrafish are shedding light on melanoma, the most deadly skin cancer, and offering clues on how to treat it. What can’t Len do with his zebrafish swimming by his side? All that said (and read), don’t let your zebrafish (or yourselves) swim in the sun too long! And if you want a Len refresher, watch and enjoy him all over again here.

Like most things that are worthwhile, playing the shofar takes a lot of patience and practice. In the Jewish faith, being a shofar sounder is an incredible honor. Puckering-up will only get you shofar… It is your job as the Ba’al T’qiah (which awesomely translates to “Master of the Blast”) to usher in the high holidays, particularly Rosh Hashanah, when the sound literally announces the commencement of the new year. Even in our small studio, the shofar produced an incredibly powerful sound that must be even more all encompassing when blown in a house of worship. However, this full, beautiful sound that Dr Zon produced doesn’t come easily, as evidenced by my rather, er, pitiful attempts to copy his trumpeting. Check out the video in the player above and see for yourself.

Cancer researcher/Shofar player Len Zon has had a thing for horns for a while.

“Here I am as first trumpet in the high school band,” says Len. “I love playing trumpet, and it is a big part of my life. I play first trumpet in the Longwood Symphony.” See Len Trumpet!

Check out this clip to see just how much attention Len’s research really got—it even made it into a very well known monologue. (And come on Jay—ease up on the Lobster guys—there’s no such thing as a free lunch, even if it is invisible).

Zebrafish play a huge role in Cancer researcher/Shofar player Len Zon’s life. With over 3000 fish tanks in his lab, he has one of the largest aquaria in the world.

Len’s laboratory has worked on the zebrafish as a model for human disease, with great results (see our “Fishing for Answers” video).

Here is last year’s annual lab picture, where the group pays homage to the zebrafish. “I am pround of this group,” says Len. “We added stripes to the picture this year.” Dr. Zebrafish, I presume?

When I heard featured scientist Len Zon say he feeds sea monkeys to the zebrafish he uses for cancer research, I knew I wanted to write something here about the sea monkey phenomenon I remembered from childhood. I was worried the subject was too trite compared to the important work Len does. Was it scientific enough? I decided that outside of their contribution to research biology, the sea monkey phenomenon is a part of popular culture. So, at the very least it’s social science.

Monkey Sea Monkey Do Sea monkeys are a genetic variant of Artemia, crustaceans also known as brine shrimp. Their eggs are metabolically inactive and remain in a state of suspended animation for up to two years. Drop the eggs into the right environment, though, and they come to life!

Back in 1957, the same guy who invented X-ray glasses marketed these brine shrimp as a novelty pet he named sea monkeys. His ads in the back of magazines showed a mail-order kit with which any kid could produce lively little chimp-faced creatures who wore crowns and would swim around in their delightful aquatic kingdom. All you had to do was dump the little packet of “instant life” into pre-conditioned water. In just days you’d get tiny dots swimming around and eventually you’d get creatures about an inch long, guaranteed to live up to two years. But they didn’t look like monkeys.

I asked Facebook friends if they remembered sea monkeys:

How does Len really change a zebrafish’s stripes? He has his very own, specially made magic wand, also known as his Monette trumpet. Watch and listen as Len trumpets his way into your (and Wynton’s) heart. Perhaps it will have you seeing stripes…or at least singing a different tune.

From the start, Secret Lifer Len Zon’s mother had high hopes for her son. “My mother always wanted me to be a doctor, like her two brothers,” says Len. He made her dreams come true.

The doctor will be with you shortly. He is currently busy making his mama proud!

Len Zon has a great secret, but I couldn’t help but focus on the zebrafish he uses in his research. The colored zebrafish reminded of something I ran across while researching my fourth-grade-level book about genes—the GloFish®.

The transgenic zebrafish with its glowing colors have been genetically modified from a normal zebrafish—that is, a gene for fluorescence from a sea anemone or a jellyfish My goodness, you’re glowing! (Courtesy Glofish.com) has been inserted into a zebrafish egg. The genes become part of the genetic makeup of the developing fish and as an adult, the colored zebrafish passes the modified gene to its offspring, who also are that color and continue passing the gene to their offspring. These fascinating fish are available from science suppliers and some retailers for classroom study or to keep as pets. And here’s the link to the GloFish site.

Medicine and music are linked. It’s partly due to the wiring of our brains: both fields are mathematical, relational, and conceptual. It also comes down to how we use our brains. Medicine, like music, is an art, a large knowledge base upon which we draw and build with each new patient we meet. Medicine depends on teamwork: treatments are developed and refined in consultation with colleagues, much like a theme is passed and adapted among instruments in an orchestra.

Portrait of the young scientist as a trumpet player Because of these shared characteristics, it’s not surprising that you’ll find many doctors and scientists harboring musical talents. Come see a performance of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston—my musical outlet since 1984—to hear this firsthand. While there was a brief period of time when I considered becoming a professional musician, my heart was always in science and medicine, and it made more sense to me to make music my hobby.

When our two daughters were born, my wife and I went through just about every emotion you can imagine. (Of course, my wife also went through just about every physical sensation you can imagine—thank you, Ann!) The birth of a child is an amazing time—something you never, ever forget. Sure enough, Len is smiling now! When Len Zon’s son was born, though, there was an added element of excitement that’s only likely to happen when one of the parents is a scientist. It was 1993 and Len had just learned how a baby’s umbilical cord blood could be harvested, saved, and potentially later used in the treatment of a wide array of genetic diseases. I’ll let Len take it from here….

“I attended one of the first cord blood transplantation seminars. And I was amazed that this actually was working for kids who had genetic diseases. And so at that point, I decided it would be great to harvest my own son’s cord blood. At that time, the head of the blood bank at Children’s Hospital was also interested in storing cord blood, so I organized with him that he could collect my son’s cord blood. And when we were going to the hospitals for visits, we were sure we had told the obstetrician that we were going to do this entire procedure.

Shofar-playing zebrafish can ask as many questions as they’d like!

And Len promises to give you some really fine answers.

UPDATE: We are no longer taking more questions for Len. But check out his answers in the comments. He may have answered a question you were going to ask!