According to a former student, Len Kaczmarek is fond of noting: "Eric Clapton and I used to play the same clubs. Then our careers diverged." And it's true. Kaczmarek opened for Eric Clapton at Eel Pie Island and played guitar at the Royal Albert Hall. But then he swapped his guitar for a pipette—at least for a living—to help launch the field of neuromodulation, demonstrating for the first time that phosphorylation can change the electrical properties of ion channels and, ultimately, neuronal activity and animal behavior.
"The field of neuromodulation has become gigantic, and has led to all sorts of discoveries about how the brain works," says Yale's Elizabeth Jonas, a colleague and collaborator. "And Len is at its apex."
Kaczmarek's detour into science was largely happenstance. "At the time of my O-levels, which are taken when ...
