The thrill that drives researchers: Dr. Josef Prchal on ambition, competition, and the [selfish] joy of discovery

Dr. Josef Prchal, University of Utah

The road to scientific discovery is littered with failure. For researchers like Dr. Josef Prchal, MD, the moments that make the journey worthwhile are not a guaranteed outcome or incremental progress; it is the rare, intoxicating thrill of finding something no one has seen before. 

For more than 4 decades, Dr. Prchal has lived at the edge of discovery in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of rare blood cancers. Along the way, he helped shape how the field understands these diseases. He remains refreshingly candid about what drives many scientists to keep going, even when progress is slow and failure is common.

Discovery is driven by ambition and that’s not a flaw 

Ask Dr. Prchal what motivates researchers, and he does not cite altruism or lofty ideals. He defaults to his natural state of iconoclastic honesty. “It’s very selfish,” he says of his efforts in medicine with a playful smile. “It’s a personal, selfish drive.” . 

“I think in academic life, the most rewarding [experience] is when you make a new discovery,” Dr. Prchal says unabashedly. He argues that competition, ego, and selfishness do not undermine progress. They fuel it. What matters is where that drive is directed, and whether it ultimately produces knowledge that benefits the world. 

The scientist’s reward is an intoxicating mix of breaking the finish line ribbon and furthering human knowledge, the moment when years of uncertainty snap into focus. 

The early days of MPN research, before answers existed 

To understand why discovery carries such weight for Dr. Prchal, it helps to remember what MPN research looked like before today’s genetic insights. 

When he received his first grant from MPN Research Foundation in the early 2000s, the field was still searching for its footing. Scientists knew these diseases were clonal disorders of blood formation, but the underlying biology remained largely unexplained. It was challenging to determine what questions to ask. 

The period surrounding the discovery of the JAK2 mutation marked a turning point. Multiple groups were racing to understand why blood stem cells behaved abnormally in MPNs. Dr. Prchal’s work during this era helped narrow the search, including early research supported by MPN Research Foundation that focused on the chromosome region where JAK2 would later be identified (Kralovics et al., 2002, 2003). 

Dr. Prchal appreciates the competitive reality that drives academic discovery. In moments like the race to identify the JAK2 mutation, multiple laboratories were in a dead heat, each trying to cross the finish line first. Dr. Prchal holds an opinion of which of the 4 he feels deserves the credit — a view he unabashedly shares with a sly smile and the caveat “my friends, they really didn't like me when I discussed this.” 

Looking back, Prchal describes those years as exhilarating. “It is really an emotional, personal thing: getting a huge high,” he says. “It’s almost like addiction.” 

For patients today, it can be hard to remember how recent many “known” MPN facts truly are. Genetic testing, molecular classification, and targeted research strategies were not always part of the landscape. For Dr. Prchal, being present at that inflection point did more than shape his career. It hooked him.

Once hooked, being close to discovery is its own reward 

That first rush of discovery can sustain decades of work. Long hours. Dead ends. Experiments that fail far more often than they succeed. “You spend years and weekends ignoring your family, trying to follow what you want,” Prchal admits. 

Yet the grind is endured in anticipation of the next moment when something new is uncovered. 

Over time, Dr. Prchal became known not only for his own work, but for his mentorship and proximity to discovery across the field. In a close‑knit research community, ideas often move faster than publications. 

He recalls hearing about calreticulin mutations, another major advance in MPN biology, well before the findings appeared in print. “I heard a year before it was published,” he says. “[The researcher] showed me a protocol for sequencing it. It was not yet published, so I was trying to see if they have calreticulin…” 

In these moments, it is not about credit. They reflect a culture of trust, collaboration, and shared urgency: scientists pushing one another forward, even as they compete. 

Prchal’s influence reaches well beyond his own work. He nearly convinced his former trainee, Dr. Robert Kralovics, PhD, to pursue medical school, and left a lasting impression on how his trainees approach uncertainty. When experiments failed or results defied explanation, Dr. Kralovics recalls Dr. Prchal’s steady reminder: “In MPN, nothing is obvious or easy.” It’s to the benefit of humanity that this stark reality is motivational to a certain breed of driven individuals. 

Why risky discovery science needs independent support 

Early discovery rarely looks polished and is never predictable. That is precisely why it often struggles to find funding. 

Traditional grant mechanisms tend to favor incremental progress and clearly defined outcomes. But foundational breakthroughs, the kind that redefine a field, often begin as uncertain ideas with incomplete data. 

Dr. Prchal credits MPN Research Foundation with recognizing that reality early on. “MPN Research Foundation can really foster productive research in the area which is not known,” he says. Rather than waiting for consensus, the Foundation invested in curiosity and drive, backing work that larger funders might overlook. 

“It’s not only funding risky research,” Prchal adds, “but creating opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t exist.” For Prchal, progress in MPNs has always begun in uncomfortable territory — and independent support is what makes it possible to work there. 

Discovery before all 

For all the progress made in MPN research, Dr. Prchal and his colleagues are still chasing that which remains unsolved. 

“I think they all have one thing in common,” he says of his fellow researchers. “They all fail. When you do research, everybody, no matter how intelligent, you fail. And you only can take it if you make a discovery which is important, and that gives you so much satisfaction that you are willing to take failures.” 

Uncertainty is the baseline condition of science, which makes discovery only a fleeting destination. And yet the pursuit of the discovery “high” functions as a sustaining force and the reason many researchers return to the laboratory. 

“I think I’m still driven by a selfish impulse of trying to better understand molecular basis of myeloid disorders,” Prchal reflects. “There are some other… things which remain to be discovered.” 

There is more to learn, and biology left unexplained. More questions that demand patience and persistence. For Dr. Josef Prchal, the unknown is not discouraging, because the thrill of discovery is its own reward.

Sources:

Kralovics, R., Guan, Y., & Prchal, J. T. (2002). Acquired uniparental disomy of chromosome 9p is a frequent stem cell defect in polycythemia vera. Experimental Hematology, 30(3), 229–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-472X(01)00789-5 

Kralovics, R., Stockton, D. W., & Prchal, J. T. (2003). Clonal hematopoiesis in familial polycythemia vera suggests the involvement of multiple mutational events in the early pathogenesis of the disease. Blood, 102(10), 3793–3796. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2003-03-0885