Zyg at work, in his editorium
Unlike many other companies recently hastily assembled to ride the wave of investor enthusiasm for the unknown, Zygotron Metadynamics traces its origins to the true innovator of bone marrow stem cell therapy.
Our founder was a highly talented polymath whose gifts spanned the breadth of human achievement from biology to sociology to mathematics.
Qualifying in Warsaw and training in Vienna, Paris and Milan, Prof Dr Emilio Zyg painstakingly developed, through a peripatetic lifestyle across top centers in Europe, his storehouse of knowledge on which our company is based. In 1952 time he married Magdalena, scion of the secretive Lamprecht-Baumgartner dynasty which through a network of private shareholdings controlled several heavy industries in central Europe. This endowed him with a substantial fortune which he committed to invest in the furtherance of realizing his ideas.
Early color photograph of Zygotron HQ, 1959
He established a center of excellence for bone marrow stem cell researchers worldwide which brought many liberated thinkers together in a spirit of brotherhood and innovation. The important work they initiated there has had ramifications of unparalleled importance for the development of the field since then. A modest man, he sought no publicity and never gave interviews, preferring to spend his time quietly analyzing and editing the institute’s scientific data, and setting strategic direction. He knew the many staff by name individually although, being shy, he rarely engaged in conversation other than brief discourse into his novel ideas on hyperbolic non-linear calculus that have become a foundation for our field, both within our company and beyond.
To this day workers outside the company have difficulty following our advanced calculations. This is the burden of being the intellectual descendants of a genius.
As the institute grew, the headquarters building – grand though it was – became constraining and was replaced by numerous smaller institutes around the globe, principally in Europe and especially in Germany. The largest and most popular among stem cell pioneers was the spacious accommodation near Düsseldorf, where he found the company most convivial and the climate most pleasing.
Happier times – Düsseldorf senior leadership, pre-schism 1961
Sadly, as is common in the highly charged atmosphere of world leading scientists, a split in the group developed, and a faction broke away from the Zyg mainstream in the mid 1960’s. Although sharing research methodology, and indeed some rather complex domestic arrangements, Zyg’s main group adhered to original aspiration of developing a solid science with commercial aspirations, while the breakaway group struck out boldly for immediate clinical application, with less attention to detail. The splinter group, able to obtain funding through delivering hopeful therapy, flourished more prominently in the media and is now world-renowned.
Zyg never discussed the split, preferring to puff on his pipe and raise an eyebrow sadly. “He was like a brother to me, not so long ago,” is all he would lament of his erstwhile deputy. The groups gradually stopped intermixing socially and Zyg spent more time supervising the construction of his retirement villa, Hotel Paracrine.
His death in 1981 has not dimmed the light he shone into this world. His family have maintained the company at the forefront of science through generous funding and infusion of fresh talent drawn from the top echelons of the international business world. Each day at our headquarters staff file past a portrait of this great man of science who is our inspiration.
We are still today dedicated to bringing his imagination into reality.
ZYGOTRON METADYNAMICS CORPORATION 