Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

Don’t worry, we have you covered so you can put on your favorite pajamas and drink hot chocolate while listening to this A+ playlist we curated featuring talent from the MGRI community.

Besides doing amazing science and working to find new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease, these people are also amazing musical artists! We hope you enjoy this playlist.

Musical artist: Rudy Tanzi, PhD

Dr. Tanzi is the Vice-Chair of Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, and Co-Director of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Tanzi and his team were the first to use human stem cells to create a human brain organoid model of AD, dubbed “Alzheimer’s in a Dish,” a three-dimensional human stem cell-derived neural culture system, which was the first to recapitulate the key AD pathological hallmarks.

This system also was used to definitively show for the first time that amyloid plaques cause neurofibrillary tangles. This model has made drug screening for AD much faster and more effective.

He is a jazz pianist in the style of Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans and also a keyboardist with Joe Perry (or Aerosmith). He has played on albums with Aerosmith and Joe Perry.

Musical artist: Michael Datko, PhD

Dr. Datko is a postdoctoral research at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.

He is studying how behavioral and integrative treatments, such as mindfulness-based interventions, can improve outcomes for individuals.

He uses functional MRI to study longitudinal effects of such treatments in patients with anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.

While not working to collect and analyze neuroimaging data, he can be found biking or walking around the city, making music and other creative endeavors, and sharing good food. 

Check out his website to learn more about his research and to see some of his amazing photography of Boston and the surrounding areas.

As a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Datko spends much of his time listening to the sounds that MRIs produce. He also has a background in drumming, so it was only natural for him to begin recognizing the rhythm in those sounds.

The song below is a version of Carol of the Bells (originally based on the Ukrainian song “Shchedryk”) made entirely from sounds sampled from MRI scanners. I cut short sounds from longer audio recordings of various MRI scanning sequences, then assigned those sounds to MIDI notes on a digital audio sampling program. Some sounds are pitch-modulated to create the melody and others are exactly as recorded from the scanner. This version is named Carol of the Coils, based on the gradient coils which create the sounds heard while an MRI magnet is scanning.

Musical artist: Ragon Institute Investigators

The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard brings together scientists and engineers from diverse fields to better understand the immune system and support human health. The Ragon’s mission is to harness the immune system to prevent and cure human disease.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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