Future researchers meet future research: the Crawford Smith family visits Johns Hopkins.

After the special edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition last winter featured home improvements for the Crawford Smith family of Blackburg, Virginia, the National MS Society reached out to young Hunter Smith in hope of directing his enthusiasm for science toward a future in MS research.

Twelve-year-old Hunter received the Society's first Young Minds Award, designed to encourage further science study with a visit to a center where MS research is in progress. Dr. Peter Calabresi and his team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine invited the whole family--Hunter, his ten-year-old brother Garland, and their mother, Carol--to spend a day in the Hopkins research facilities.

The Calabresi group is working on ways to protect the nervous system from MS damage and to repair what MS has broken. Supported by a major multi-year grant from the Society's Promise 2010 campaign, the team is pursuing several approaches to speed basic science findings into clinical trials of therapies.

Both Smith boys, who have seen their mother, who was once a ballerina, become progressively disabled, listened with keen interest when Dr. Calabresi said, "We are trying to see if we can help people who are already disabled by this disease."

Hunter wears a special sensor-fitted suit at the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Motion Analysis Lab at Hopkins. This high-tech equipment helps researchers pinpoint movement dysfunctions and find ways to remedy them.

What does the future hold? "We're a strong family," Crawford Smith said. "We don't believe in making MS a big excuse for anything. My guys are pretty tough for their ages and I've supported their independent natures." Hunter likes to joke, "I've been lazy all my life"--a funny way to describe a 12-year-old whose favorite subjects are science, English, and Latin. Garland admits that he does his own laundry, but claims fame for having accidents on his bike. In a serious moment, he says his most important quality is his ability to give encouragement. Before MS, Crawford Smith was a member of the acclaimed Dance Theater of Harlem. She now teaches ballet in Blacksburg.

Dr. Pardo-Villamizar helps Hunter get a view of cell interactions that could not be seen before microscopes like this one were built. The 3-D super-magnifying confocal microscope and new high-tech MRI techniques are opening opportunities for sophisticated studies. "We can now try a drug and see in real-time if nerve cells are growing out and getting stronger," Dr. Calabresi said.

Martha King is the editor of InsideMS.