The Messenger

1

Changing the Fate

AS A KID, DERRICK ROSSI WANTED TO BE A VETERINARIAN. His house in suburban Toronto was always full of animals, and his older brother was always bringing more home—snakes, raccoons, owls, squirrels. Rossi was never scared; he felt connected to them.

But something shifted in the eleventh grade. His biology teacher, a recent college graduate, introduced him to the inner working of cells, and Rossi was captivated. He loved the idea that tiny molecules could be so sophisticated that their machinations determined what made a snake’s skin look and feel different from an owl’s plumage. He was awestruck by the notion that cells controlled all life on Earth.

Rossi took his newfound passion to the University of Toronto, where he studied ...