A memorial scholarship for Dr. Erich William Damm

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Remembering Erich

Dr. Erich William Damm was a brilliant, curious, kind, and inspired scientist and professor, and a beloved son, brother, partner, cousin, nephew, and friend. It is with profound shock and grief that we share the news of his tragic death at age 39 from a pulmonary embolism. There was no warning or rationale for what happened to Erich. A blood clot out of nowhere brought his extraordinary life to a premature end. On September 21, 2023, a flag was raised at the Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital in his honour, commemorating his decision to donate his organs, giving new hope to other families. In death as in everyday life, Erich was an exceptionally generous human being.

He was, and will always be, a core part of a large and loving family. Born in Toronto on July 18, 1984, to proud parents Catherine Wells and Josef Damm, Erich was an adored older brother to Ingrid and grew up in a close-knit extended family. His childhood and teenage years were filled with camping trips with the Harris family to Killbear and Awenda Provincial Parks; time fishing and boating with the McGinn extended family in Amethyst Harbour; annual excursions to see musicals and the Messiah symphony with Grandma Wells; and country drives with Grandpa Wells in his beloved 1989 Mercury Colony Park, fondly known in the family as the “Wally Wagon.” Erich was an enthusiastic participant in choreographed lip sync routines, swamp canoeing expeditions, and weekend bunkbed sleepovers with the Harris siblings, who considered him a brother. With his childhood best friend, cousin David Harris, he mastered impersonations of Mrs. Doubtfire and Star Trek’s Captain Kathryn Janeway (a skill that continued into his adult years), and built an ingenious “Wally Wagon” dashboard out of scrap drywall, using a paper plate for the steering wheel. From an early age Erich enthused about flight in all forms, from airplanes to rocket ships. He was fluent in the technical language of ailerons and nacelles, airspeeds and warp drives, and always looked up at the stars.

It surprised no one, given his interests and aptitudes, that Erich was drawn to science. That he chose to study cell biology in particular was a direct result of his love for his little sister Ingrid, who as a toddler suffered brain damage from a benign tumor. Brain cells are highly specialized and cannot regenerate. Stem cells, however, have the potential to turn into neurons and other specialized cells through a series of mysterious cues and processes. Erich’s overarching goal was to better understand the differentiation of vertebrate cells, their transitions and migrations, in hopes of someday enabling the biomedical repair of injured neurons or sickle cell anemia (feats only possible now in science fiction, with the help of a Star Trek tricorder). To this end, he completed his undergraduate and doctoral studies at the University of Toronto (UofT) in Cell and Systems Biology, winning departmental awards for his research on frog morphogenesis. As his PhD advisor Dr. Rudolf Winklbauer noted: “[Erich] is never satisfied with superficial explanations, but truly wants to get to the core and understand things, to obtain the kind of profound insights that do the most to improve the human condition.” Another UofT biology professor and committee member, Dr. Ashley Bruce, praised his independence, creativity, and fearlessness in trying out new methods and techniques. She said Erich’s performances in his oral transfer exam to the Ph.D. program, and later his Ph.D. defense, were the best she’d ever seen in her career.

Following his PhD, Erich had his pick of prestigious postdoctoral fellowships across North America. He chose St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, won over by the appealing climate for year-round running (a passion of his) and the impressive research team of Dr. Wilson Clements, an expert in experimental hematology. According to Clements, Erich quickly became a pillar of the lab, admired by his peers for his sincerity, quiet determination, calming presence, and a laugh “which could come out of nowhere.” He particularly hit it off with another postdoc in the lab, Nikki Glenn, and soon the two of them did everything together. And when Erich befriended fellow aviation enthusiast and avid runner Cody VanMeter through a local running group, they became an inseparable trio. Erich’s fierce dedication to marathon training didn’t preclude him from running in ridiculous costumes on St. Paddy’s day or cooling down post-workout over pub drinks with his “Memphis family,” singing along to a vintage jukebox into the early hours of the morning. An annual highlight for this trio was running in the 5k, half-marathon, or marathon fundraiser races for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—and then shutting down the afterparty. The joy generated by this group of friends was contagious, Nikki remembers, and often resulted in complete strangers giving their drink tickets up to them.

It was not despite but because of such fun that Erich excelled at research during his five happy years at St. Jude. Switching his vertebrate model from frogs to zebrafish, because the latter are more genetically similar to humans, Erich set out to explore how blood stem cells develop in the embryo. Using fluorescence microscopy techniques and genetic approaches, he looked for other cells in the same neighborhood when blood stem cells were forming, with the idea that these other cells might play a role in the process. In work that was “thoroughly groundbreaking,” per Clements, Erich demonstrated that a population of neuronal precursors—the neural crest—had to move into the vicinity of the future blood stem cells and provide them with instructions. This discovery formed the basis of Erich’s first-author paper in Nature Cell Biology, the most prestigious publication in his field. Other accolades followed: he was named a 2018 STAT Wunderkind, an award celebrating the top thirty most promising early-career researchers in health and medicine in North America. The following year, Erich won the extremely competitive National Institute of Health Pathway to Independence Award, which enables highly promising postdoctoral scientists to launch their own labs. In mid-2019, Erich did just that with his tenure-track appointment as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

Kickstarting an independent scientific career during a pandemic wasn’t easy. There was the isolation of teaching online in a new city; the difficulty of sourcing lab equipment due to global shipping backlogs; the need to feed zebrafish daily despite lockdowns; and a knee injury that made running painful. Just as Erich finally got his research program going, a fire in the building shut it down. But he handled these challenges with characteristic grace; as Clements noted, Erich had a “wonderful stoicism and unflappability.” Those traits served him well as a professor. Everyone who joined his VCU lab was welcomed with a warm letter outlining expectations and responsibilities—theirs, but also his. “I will support your career goals and help you achieve them to the best of my ability,” Erich vowed. “My goal is to always move you to the next level, whether from good to great or amazing to superstar!” The undergraduate courses he taught on virology and stem cell development at VCU earned rave reviews, with students attesting that it was Erich’s passion for these rigorous subjects that made them interesting.

Although he missed his Memphis family, now scattered across the continent due to “cruel careers,” as Nikki put it, it was at VCU that Erich met his partner, fellow biology professor Dr. Joe Battistelli, and deepened his friendship with Dr. Sarah Rothschild, fellow alumni of the Clements lab turned VCU professor. Also keeping him company in Richmond were his cherished rescue cats from Memphis: a handsome orange behemoth named Joey, and a shy, slim tabby named Nellie (later nicknamed “Smew”). His loft apartment was filled with cat toys, an abundance of books, watercolour paintings by his grandfather, framed prints of airplanes and starships and the Toronto skyline he loved, and a thriving forest of houseplants. It was a beautiful home, a beautiful life, with no end in sight. Hanging in his bedroom, among photos of family and friends, was a collection of finisher medals from races and a reminder to “Never Give Up.”

Erich was a dreamer who always went the distance. He dedicated his too-brief time on Earth to imagining and building a better world for everyone, from the cellular level up, and brought so much joy to those around him on a daily basis. He loved the writings of Carl Sagan, the questing journeys of Star Trek, and thrilled to the idea of vast numbers of solar systems and galaxies beyond our own. We all hope he is flying among the stars now, in a wider universe of wonder. This planet is far smaller and lonelier without him.

Erich's family started this fundraiser in hopes of establishing a memorial scholarship in his name at VCU's Department of Biology, where Erich began his career as a professor. It would mean so much to Erich to help other young scientists continue in biomedical studies and research where he left off. But there is a reason only the rich get their names scribed on things: creating a permanent, endowed scholarship at VCU isn't cheap, requiring a gift of $70,000 CAD ($50,000 USD). This is where we're asking for your help to get at least part of the way there. Any amount you're able to contribute, from a dollar to infinity, would be hugely helpful and appreciated. Donation by donation, we'll somehow make it happen for Erich—by never giving up, per his advice.