“Sorry for the delay,” said Dr. Jeffrey Greenstein in a smooth, lightly accented baritone, when he came to the phone after a few minutes. “We just got so engrossed in a problem in the lab, I totally forgot the time.”
Losing track of time in the lab is probably not an unfamiliar experience for Greenstein, who has devoted his professional life to treating and researching multiple sclerosis and remains as passionately interested in it now as he was as a medical student in his native South Africa.
“MS is the prime disabling neurologic condition of young adults,” Greenstein said in explaining why he’s devoted his life to ultimately finding a cure for the disease, which affects as many as 2.5 million people worldwide. “More than any other disease, this is a disease that disables people in their productive years.”