NEWS AND THE INSIGHT FROM THE STOWERS INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL Stowers RESEARCH REPORT

Bringing to Life INSIDE ...

Dr. Robert E. Krumlauf, a respected The Stowers Institute American research scientist who has been working in England for 14 years, has been named scientific director of the Stowers Institute. Dr. Krumlauf will continue to conduct his own research – currently focused on the impact of Hox genes on craniofacial development – while taking the leadership role among the scientists coming to work at the Institute. Article on page 2

Nelson R. Pleau brings 14 years’ experience in administration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private, nonprofit source of funding for biomedical research in the country, to his position as chief administrative officer From the time Troy Jarman, labor foreman, opens the of the Stowers Institute. Since joining the 9 gates of the construction site before dawn every work day, Institute in November 1998, Mr. Pleau has a longstanding relationship of trust makes the gritty work taken a leading role in development of the Stowers laboratory facilities on the campus of building the Stowers Institute more than just a job. That under construction in Kansas City and in feeling begins with the friendship that developed years ago 9 the search for the first group of scientists between Jim Stowers, president of the Institute, and Rick to direct laboratories. Fortner, general superintendent of the project for J.E. Dunn, Article on page 8 the principal contractor. It extends through layer after layer Two scientists with stellar credentials, of craftsmen and subcontractors among the more than one from the University of Washington 400 men and women at work on the job site. and the other from Caltech, are the first investigators selected to head individual Article begins on page 4 laboratories at the Stowers Institute. Article on page 9

His eight-year-old son, Sam, diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when he was just six months old, is a powerful inspiration for VOLUME 2 the research of Dr. Douglas A. Melton, ISSUE 1 newest member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Stowers Institute. Article on page 10 Robert E. Krumlauf Scientific Director Coming Home from England With Confidence and Spirit of Collaboration

Now, 20 years later, he has been us understand how things were normally named scientific director of the Stowers supposed to be. When it came time to Institute, which found in him the do postdoctoral training he wanted to do qualities needed to lead a facility that something that would bring his research aspires to conduct basic research that closer to human or mammalian problems. will facilitate breakthroughs in the cure An excellent cancer research center in or prevention of devastating diseases Glasgow – together with the chance to with genetic bases. Dr. Krumlauf’s career pursue his mountaineering interests in has embraced many of the components the Scottish hills – drew him across of the Stowers Institute vision, including: the Atlantic. multidisciplinary work involving In Glasgow, he did some of the scientists of many specialties and with earliest work in sorting human the door always open to collaborate with chromosomes based on size and preparing clinical researchers seeking to turn results genomic libraries – methods that are of basic research into treatments and now routinely used in genome research technologies. projects. But he eventually became Under Dr. Krumlauf’s leadership, frustrated with the lack of clinical the first group of scientists and their connections, feeling that access to associates will set up research at the patient material might help his research. Stowers Institute when the first He also sensed a critical need for model Dr. Robb Krumlauf laboratory building is completed and systems on which to study human ready for use toward the end of 2000. problems and diseases. So, he and his Robb Krumlauf’s working life began Though a native Midwesterner, he wife, Leanne Wiedemann, a research along a path that satisfied his father, brings to the Stowers Institute 14 years’ scientist with a substantial record in who wanted him to have a “real job.” experience with England’s National studying the molecular bases of leukemias, He majored in chemical engineering at Institute for Medical Research at Mill chose to do their next postdocs in Vanderbilt, then went to work in a lab Hill, London, the last nine years as Philadelphia, where the Fox Chase for Stokley Van Camp Inc., trying to head of the Division of Developmental Institute combined basic and clinical figure out ways to put together medicines Neurobiology. Before going to Mill Hill, research with a hospital community. for long-term release in the body. Dr. Krumlauf did postdoctoral training Working with the imminent biologist But a tremendous thirst for more at the Fox Chase Institute for Cancer Shirley Tilghman on how mouse genes knowledge soon drove him back to the Research in Philadelphia and the were regulated for development, Dr. classroom at Ohio State University. Beatson Institute for Cancer Research Krumlauf did research in Philadelphia At first, he studied without great design, in Glasgow, Scotland. that put him on the cutting edge of the except to answer the jumble of questions His research and choices of places to developing technique for inserting genes in his mind – such as, what makes an study and work reveal something about into the germ line of mice. This was a arm different from a leg? He took course the value he places on collaboration and breakthrough toward use of mice as a after course while continuing his work in interaction among scientists because, as model system for studying fundamental the Stokley Van Camp lab in Columbus. he says, “we never know where the next problems of biology. At the urging of professors, he eventually big idea will come from.” From Philadelphia, he became a joined a doctoral program with As a graduate student, he worked regular on the international circuit of fellowship support from the National on the genetics of fungi – trying to use conferences and seminars that are so Institutes of Health. Out of that genetics to understand relationships important to scientists for generating experience emerged Robert E. Krumlauf, between things in the body and asking and exchanging ideas and talking about Ph.D. in . whether mutants or mutations could help research results. “I felt that I needed to

2 understand more about mice and how become strongly convinced of the value together in London and expects to see the mouse embryo developed and as I that the study of many different animals some of the same ways of working traveled I began to realize that about and organisms has for learning about the develop at the Stowers Institute. 75 or 80 percent of the best mouse workings of the human body. “Part of my interest in coming to embryologists in the world were “The average person might wonder Stowers is the opportunity to be part of concentrated in a small area of the why, if we want to learn about humans, an enterprise that wants to integrate a United Kingdom between London, would we be interested in studying frogs, number of different approaches and Cambridge and Oxford.” fish, flies or worms,” he said. “Yet, what technologies, to work in a collaborative His discussions and contacts with I can tell you is that some of the most way, and to do this in a fun environment. those embryologists eventually led to an instrumental landmark findings in shaping This is very appealing to me. I hope I invitation to join the government-funded medical research have come directly can bring to the Institute some of the National Institute for Medical Research, from unexpected findings in those advantages and ideas that we have at often known by its location – Mill animal systems.” Mill Hill.” Hill. Beginning as group leader in the As examples, he cited the work of He and his wife are also drawn by Laboratory of Eukaryotic Molecular another scientist on – the fruit the desire to come home to America, Genetics, he later added work as an fly – that led to discovery of a gene and the Midwest particularly, which adjunct research fellow at University that is now a major target in basal enables them and their seven-year-old College London and in 1991 became cell carcinomas and a number of other son, Matthew, to be closer to family in Head of Division of Developmental human diseases. And of other scientists Ohio and Chicago. But there’s one little Neurobiology at Mill Hill. whose work on the worm known as piece of England that they’re planning At Mill Hill, fellow scientists told c. elegans led to the finding that at least to hold onto – the canal boat in which him that the important thing was to some cancers grow because of the failure of they share ownership with three other do interesting things. It is fine to publish a gene that should tell cells when to die. families. only a small number of papers, they “This has provided tremendous They use the 60-foot-long boat, said, but the most important thing is insight into clinical and therapeutic equipped with beds and bunks, for to do interesting things and ask approaches to cancer,” he said, “but lazy trips through the idyllic English important questions. nobody would have thought of starting countryside, traveling on the several “This encouraged me to take that research by studying the worm. thousand miles of canals that were built gambles, to do many speculative things,” You never know where the knowledge at the time of the Industrial Revolution he said. “It’s important to have faith in will come from.” to transport goods and services. The the people around you and know that “We’re going through a revolution boats were originally drawn along the they will support you even through hard in biology and medicine where people narrow canals by horses on the shore; times. This is essential because most of say, ‘I’m interested in this problem, but today, they’re powered by diesel. what scientists try doesn’t work or, when maybe I should study it in different “In science, everything is done so we test something, it yields unexpected model systems and then find a very rapid fast,” he said, “so it is a pleasant switch answers and we can’t understand why. way to confirm that this is relevant for to find ourselves on a boat where we The gems of excitement that we get from human genetic disease.’ No one really can’t go more than three miles an hour – time to time are few and far between. has expertise in all these areas, and this people walking can go faster than that. We have to live on them for years is why we have to draw on broader bases You run the locks yourself; there are pubs afterward. If you have to fight your of collaboration within the scientific in the countryside and it’s very rural, colleagues it’s worse.” community. So, people working on flies but you also go through small cities. At Mill Hill, his international will collaborate with those working on It’s almost like experiencing industrial stature grew substantially. While humans and vice versa. It’s a very history. We’d be loath to let it go.” focusing on the mouse for his research, stimulating environment because people he developed a rare understanding of are very interested in what their colleagues many other model systems as well – are doing and appreciate that just around fruit flies, puffer fish, chickens and frogs. the corner something could pop up that Focusing his research on the roles of they’ve been looking for all their lives.” the Hox genes in development of the Dr. Krumlauf said he feels lucky to nervous system in , he has be part of a community that works well

3 Relationship of Trust Behind Steel

Like most great things, it began as a For about 45 minutes we walked around, dream, and the man with the dream told and he asked questions. From that day another man about it. Thus began the on, it became a Friday afternoon ritual. trusting relationship that lies behind I think he loves construction. the day-by-day, steel-and-concrete, nuts- “We became friends, and as we and-bolts work of bringing the Stowers moved along in that project and had Institute to life. more meetings he began to tell me about his dream, and his dream was the Stowers Institute. We kind of parted with the understanding that when it was ready to become a reality he would call me. And that’s what he did.” With the J.E. Dunn firm again selected as general contractor, Rick Troy Jarman, left, and Doug Seiter work side-by-side as members of what they like to call Fortner became general superintendent the A-Team, running the grubby, daily cement for construction of the Stowers Institute pours required to build the Stowers Institute. in the summer of 1998. He came straight from building the new federal courthouse The trust that developed between in downtown Kansas City, a challenging him and Jim Stowers during the radial structure with pie-shaped courtrooms American Century job is repeated again looking out to the Missouri River. and again through the long days that go The Dunn firm is a construction into building the 600,000-square-foot powerhouse, with revenues that Stowers Institute. It carries over into the approached $1 billion in 1998. Its bright relationships between Rick Fortner and blue cranes reign high in the sky over the some 400 people scattered all over Rick Fortner, general superintendent on the job site – many of whom have the Stowers Institute construction site, began many building sites in these booming a trusting relationship with Jim Stowers years times, including that of the Sprint Corp. worked with him on other jobs – and ago. “We became friends ... and he began to campus in suburban Overland Park, the among the vast network of subcontractors tell me about his dream, and his dream was largest corporate construction project representing many construction trades the Stowers Institute.” anywhere in the country. Rick Fortner’s who work with the Dunn firm. As Rick Fortner remembers the own resume also includes the soaring Their work begins at 7 a.m. in the beginning of his friendship with Jim temple of the national headquarters of summer, 7:30 in the winter. Labor Stowers, the two of them encountered the Reorganized Church of Latter Day foreman Troy Jarman is on the scene each other while walking around the Saints in Independence, Mo., and a well before that. He leaves his home in construction site for the second of the sprawling commercial project in Tulsa. the countryside outside Raymore, Mo., two office towers in Kansas City that house American Century, the Stowers family’s mutual funds company. It was a Friday afternoon seven or eight years ago. “I think we’re going to Mr. Fortner was job superintendent for J. E. Dunn Construction Co., the general contractor. be top class ... We’re doing it “Mr. Stowers introduced himself, and I introduced myself,” Mr. Fortner one time and doing it right.” recalled, “and I asked if he would be interested in going on a job tour. 4 and Concrete of Stowers Institute

while it’s still dark and drives into the jewelry, and the something different she Fordyce Concrete Co. that come and go city in time to open the gates to the chose was construction. throughout most of every working day. work site about 5:45 a.m. Small and wiry, “At first, it was difficult,” she said. Each carries 10 cubic yards of cement. he’ll probably walk 20 miles on the job “The guys thought, ‘She’s come from air Carpenters lay the forms, and Mr. site in the course of the day, up and conditioning and high heels, so how are Jarman’s crew, usually nine men, down, back and forth. we to know she’s going to make it in does the pouring and smoothing. Craftsmen, angling for a good parking work boots?’” “We poured 470 yards one day,” said spot in the busy midtown neighborhood, Since then she has shown she has Mr. Seiter. “That’s 47 trucks loaded with begin to arrive shortly after Mr. Jarman. muscles enough to swing a sledge hammer cement. We go faster than they can get it They sit in their cars and pickups with in demolition and nerve enough to wield here. But we still have a good time.” country music playing, and drink coffee cutting torches. She often works on the “We lose very little time from bad and talk until it’s time to go to work. cleanup after Troy Jarman and his crew weather,” Mr. Jarman said. “If it’s below Timothee Richardson, a laborer who complete their daily cement pours – 32 degrees and not climbing, we don’t usually gets to work a few minutes after creating the walls, decks and pillars pour, but we had hardly any weather like Mr. Jarman, quickly starts one of her that form the structure of the that last winter.” regular tasks – putting jugs of water Stowers Institute. Even the record setting heat wave of and Gatorade around at all the work Because the Stowers Institute is the summer of ’99 – with day after day locations on the 10-acre site. being built in about half the time of temperatures topping 100 degrees in normally required for a scientific research Kansas City – didn’t slow the work. “The facility, the construction schedule is laid heat makes the cement set quicker,” Mr. out like five concurrent projects. That Jarman said. means many different tasks at different As for rain – “We say it never rains levels of construction are being done at on a Dunn job,” Mr. Seiter said. the same time in the five buildings that While the A-team can rightfully will comprise the Institute. Mike claim to be doing a huge amount of work Householder, senior project manager for to create the basic structures of the Dunn, and Mr. Fortner coordinate with Stowers Institute, Ed Hale says – with Jeff Johnson, project manager on behalf a pipefitter’s pride – that the complex of the Stowers Institute. There are five labor foremen and crews on the site, but Mr. Jarman’s group – with a touch of bravura – has assumed for itself the title of the A-Team. Why? Maybe, as Mrs. Richardson says, it’s Timothee Richardson, a laborer, puts first priority on keeping the more than 400 craftsmen because they keep each other going even supplied with water and Gatorade. “At first, when it’s too hot or too cold and when the guys thought, How is she going to make their bodies are feeling their ages. Or it in work boots?” maybe it’s the corny tricks they play on “Some may think I’m doing a light themselves and others – like pouring a job,” she said, “but water is the first bucket of water on a couple of carpenters priority on this job – making sure down in a hole, then pretending to have no idea who did it. everybody has liquids.” Ed Hale, left, and Paul Smith of A.D. Fifteen years ago, Mrs. Richardson – It may also be – as Doug Seiter, Mr. Jacobson Co., the mechanical contractor. she’s called Timmie all over the site – Jarman’s right-hand man, suggests – the Mr. Hale calls the pipefitters’ work “the decided to “get out of pantyhose and do way the A-Team races to stay ahead of heartbeat of the buildings.” To Mr. Smith, something different.” She was then selling the turquoise and white trucks from it’s the “circulatory system.”

continued next page 5 dollar terms. Mr. Smith gave some installing ducts as large as 72 inches by examples of what makes it so expensive: 60 inches with 4-inch insulated walls. One of the features of the ductwork • Chemical-resistant six-inch piping is that all of the insulation for the to carry away laboratory waste costs laboratory buildings is encased in Mylar, $138 a foot from the supplier – a polyester film that Mr. Searcy equates compared with $7-$8 for more to “big Baggies.” That is done “so the typical piping. insulation can’t break lose and get into • The central plant will have 3,550 tons of air conditioning, probably the air flow in the labs,” he said. twice as much as required in an If the pipefitters and sheet metal office building with the same workers are providing the circulation and square footage. respiratory systems of the Institute, then • There will be five steam boilers, the energy to power those systems is two of which will be used primarily made possible by the hands of 30-some for cleaning mice cages and electricians from Broadway Electric, laboratory equipment. another firm with a long association with Jack Searcy of Cates Sheet Metal, which does • There will be underground storage for the Dunn company and the Stowers family. the big ductwork, stands just slightly taller, at “This is my 11th or 12th year on a 6 feet 6, than the width of some of that ductwork. 30,000 gallons of fuel to operate the backup generators in case the regular Stowers project. I’m almost a relative,” would be little more than a lifeless supply of electricity or natural gas is said Gary Chumley, the on-site mass of concrete and steel without the interrupted – enough to keep the coordinator for Broadway Electric. ductwork and piping that his people campus going for 60 hours at 60 In addition to the obvious things – are putting into the buildings. percent of capacity. This assures that electric lines and lighting – Broadway “I refer to our system as the heart- no research work will be lost and that Electric is providing fiber optics for voice beat of the buildings,” said Mr. Hale, animal-care facilities can continue and data transmission; the security system, who is general foreman of the pipefitters. to function normally. including cameras and card keys; the “We supply the air – the life-support environmental monitoring system; system – for the research mice, to be audio-visual and cable television certain they have proper air and humidity networks, and – in another feature and that the air is not cross-contaminated.” intended to protect research efforts – Mr. Hale works for A. D. Jacobson a system designed to protect all of Co., the mechanical contractor. Among the research and office facilities from other things, the firm is installing 25 to lightning strikes. 30 miles of pipe to carry air or water – “We’re using the finest quality pipes that range from a pneumatic methods you can get on a facility this control tube just one-eighth of an inch large,” said Mr. Chumley. “The research in diameter up to some pipes that are community can be assured that 24 inches in diameter. Gary Chumley, coordinator for Broadway everything is being done as it should be.” Electric, enjoys one of the few desk jobs on the “The HVAC system – heating, In superlatives, however, it is construction site. “We’re using the finest quality ventilation and air conditioning – is difficult to top the 200,000 pounds of methods you can get on a facility this large.” like the circulatory system of a body,” ornamental stainless steel that Baker- explained Paul Smith, project manager Jacobson has subcontracted the big Smith Sheet Metal is installing – on the site for A. D. Jacobson. ductwork to Cates Sheet Metal, whose comprising the roofing, flashings, Although A. D. Jacobson has been field superintendent, Jack Searcy, stands architectural louvers and column covers in business since 1919 and has worked on – at 6 feet 6 – just slightly taller than of the five-building complex. Jerry many major projects in Kansas City, this the width of some of that ductwork. His Schaefer, one of the two owners of one is expected to be its largest ever in dozen or so sheet metal workers are Baker-Smith, said his firm buys the metal

6 in 4-foot by 10-foot flat sheets, then Toward the end of 2000, when these handcrafts it in the firm’s shops before and other craftsmen are finished and delivering the metal for installation. scientists are ready to move into the Even the roof, which is made of laboratories, responsibility for care and glass-bead blasted stainless steel, is management of the gleaming facility will custom fabrication. pass to Neil Krahn, facilities manager for Stainless steel was chosen for the the Stowers Institute. His skills at precision roof because it is highly resistant to maintenance were honed in 14 years corrosion and to any possible chemical. as an engineer aboard nuclear-powered The glass submarines of the U.S. Navy, a job where bead any error could be deadly. Later, he processing added experience as plant operator and Neil Krahn left, will bring precision removes the engineer for hospitals and colleges. “I ran all the turbines and the pumps maintenance skills learned on Navy nuclear shine from submarines to the care of the Stowers Institute and anything mechanical on the submarine the metal and facilities after the construction crews pack up leaves a reactor,” he said. “Air compressors, and leave. Mark Bearden, right, works matte finish. generators – all of that I learned in the with him. Navy. I was born and raised on a farm in As the changes. For instance, we told the Wisconsin. All I knew was milking cows weather and architects that their calculations of and driving a tractor until I joined the sun change, outdoor temperatures didn’t go high Navy in ’64; next thing I knew I was the roof will enough in the summer and low enough in riding a submarine.” take on the the winter. We looked at the operation Mr. Krahn, along with Mark characteristics of the air handlers and boilers. Instead of Bearden, who will work with him in of the sky. automatic we wanted manual interface. operating and maintaining the facility, We had pages and pages of questions and Jerry Schaefer of Baker-Smith Sheet Metal, was closely involved in planning the answers that we bandied back and forth.” whose craftsmen are installing a stainless steel mechanical and electrical aspects of the “I think we’re going to be top class,” roof that “will look as good 50 years from now Institute and has been alongside those he said. “We’re not going after an economy as when it’s finished.” building the Institute every day. “We class structure. We’re doing it one time “These buildings will be here for my reviewed all the prints,” he said. “We and doing it right. Mr. Stowers has said lifetime, at least,” said Mr. Schaefer, “and told them which suppliers had good local that from the very beginning.” this roof will look as good 50 years from reps. We looked at system designs. In the now as when it’s finished.” first cut, we recommended quite a few

Working Conditions Gritty, Sense of Accomplishment High

The men and women building the Stowers Institute display the no-nonsense qualities of people who bring buildings into being. Theirs are gritty days of dust, mud, rain, snow, heat and cold, but they enjoy a great sense of accomplishment in being able to look around and say: I helped create that. “You get very hot and very cold, but you can see what’s done,” says Troy Jarman. Doug Seiter also appreciates the fact that the standing of laborers like him is improving a bit. “We used to be considered help from the neck down – no brains. But now we’re considered more of a craftsman – not just a grunt and go-fer. They finally figured out we got a little piece of brain.” That he has both a brain and sensitivity is obvious in his after-hours, when he serves his religious faith as a clown minister. What began with occasional clowning at parties developed into something bigger after his minister suggested he attend a school for Christian clowning. Sometimes accompanied by his 11-year-old son, he does a hobo routine at prisons, revivals, vacation Bible schools, and elsewhere. “I use illusions, like magic, to tell Bible stories,” he said. “The story of Jesus getting crucified, for example. I have some playing cards with the face of Jesus on them; the point I make is that you’re missing something from life if Jesus isn’t there. And I tie balloons together and use them to tell the story of Jonah and the whale.” continued on page 11 7 Nelson R. Pleau Administrative Chief Brings Hughes Background

It is a mark of the excitement laboratory floor designs and made a few generated in the scientific community changes “to make the space more by the creation of the Stowers Institute functional and allow for a variety of that Nelson R. Pleau left a senior special procedure and core facilities.” administrative position with the Howard “We have the opportunity to provide Hughes Medical Institute to join the many state-of-the-art and advanced Stowers Institute in its formative stage. technologies to the research space,” As chief administrative officer since he said. “Core and special procedure November 1998, Mr. Pleau has taken facilities such as central glasswash, central a leading role in development of the computing, core centrifugation, tissue Stowers laboratory facilities on the culture and sequencing are just a few. campus under construction in Kansas The 35,000-square-foot animal facility City. He is also coordinating recruitment will certainly be one of the best designed of the first group of scientists to direct in the country.” laboratories at the Institute when it In the search for scientists, he is opens its research facilities in late 2000. working closely with members of the Mr. Pleau brings to his position 14 Scientific Advisory Board and the Ad years’ experience in administration with Hoc Review Committee, both made up the Hughes Institute, the largest private, of distinguished scientists. nonprofit source of funding for biomedical “In just the last 8 to 10 months, research in the United States. He said he especially due to our recruitment effort, was drawn to the Stowers Institute by the Nelson R. Pleau the Stowers Institute has become a more quality of the facilities being created – recognized entity within the scientific states, working from offices in Salt Lake almost unmatched in the scientific world community,” he said. “The local academic City. Earlier, he held similar responsibilities – and by the personal commitment of research community and the biotechnology in the Boston office of the Hughes Virginia and James E. Stowers Jr. and pharmaceutical industries are very Institute, coordinating and supervising “What attracted me was the excited about the Institute. Over the next construction of new research space at excitement about what the Stowers’ are several years our research will provide the doing for the scientific community and for humanity,” he said. “Not many “Change, adventure and the challenge research institutes have started with these kinds of resources. Commitment, to help build and establish a world-class facilities, and philosophies, both scientific medical research institute were exciting and and administrative, make the Stowers motivating forces that drove me here.” Institute a project second to none. There is nothing like this going on anywhere else and there hasn’t been a project like Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard nucleus that will bring world recognition this for the last 10 or 15 years.” Medical School and Children’s Hospital. to the Institute, to Kansas City and to “I looked at the potential and Despite the prestige and immense the entire Midwest.” realized that this was where I wanted to resources of the Hughes Institute, Mr. Mr. Pleau grew up in Medway, Mass., be. Change, adventure and the challenge Pleau said he had accepted the Stowers as one of 10 children. After studying two to help build and establish a world-class offer because he was beginning to feel years at Johnson and Wales University in medical research institute were exciting professionally stagnated at Hughes. “It Providence, R. I., his sense of adventure and motivating forces that drove is so big now that it loses touch with carried him from New England to New me here.” its people,” he said. “I like the family Mexico, where he earned a bachelor’s For 10 years, Mr. Pleau was manager environment here.” degree in business administration from of administrative services for Hughes- Since joining the Stowers Institute, the College of Santa Fe. He later received sponsored research facilities in four western he said, he has taken a close look at the an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

8 James A. Coffman, Linheng Li First Stowers Lab Leaders Built on the Draw Praise, Encouragement Desire to From Distinguished Mentors Offer Hope

Two researchers now working in Ph.D. in zoology/cell and molecular ◆ Hope to people whose genes Stowers Institute consortia laboratories biology from Duke University. He was a condemn them to a long battle at Caltech and the University of research assistant at Duke and at Woods with cancer. Washington have been selected to join Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, joining the Stowers Institute in Kansas City Caltech in 1990. Since 1997, he has ◆ Hope to parents who wake in the when laboratory facilities open toward been director of the Caltech Transcription the end of 2000. James A. Coffman, now Factor Research/Resource Center. night to tend a diabetic child, then at Caltech, and Linheng Li, now at the At Caltech, Dr. Coffman has been toss and turn as they wonder what University of Washington, will direct involved in the widely known research the future holds for their son their own laboratories at Stowers with on sea urchin embryos by Dr. Davidson’s or daughter. the rank of assistant research scientists – lab. He played a major role in developing roughly the equivalent of assistant technology for analyzing the regulatory ◆ And hope to adult children who professor in a university. systems that control spatial patterns of Drs. Coffman and Li, who were in the sea urchin embryo. see parents sliding into the lost selected from among more than 100 Dr. Barbara Trask, vice chair of land of Alzheimer’s and wonder scientists who responded to the initial Dr. Hood’s Molecular Biotechnology how they – both the afflicted and call for applications by the Stowers Department at the University of those who love them – will find Institute, will work with Dr. Robert E. Washington School of Medicine, Krumlauf, the newly appointed described Dr. Li as doing a “spectacular their way out. scientific director. job” and as being “at the cutting edge Both of them come with high of new technologies for molecular We seek to conquer these and recommendations from some of the genetics and genome analysis. His other diseases through basic biomedical country’s top scientists, including technical contributions have been research into the way genes determine Dr. Lee Hood and Dr. Eric Davidson, clever and expeditious.” our biological fate and how they can members of the Stowers Institute’s Linheng Li was born in China Scientific Advisory Board. In particular, but is now a U.S. citizen. He earned be altered to prevent or slow disease. both have been cited for their abilities a bachelor’s degree in biology and a to develop new technologies and apply master’s degree in genetics at Fudan them to biological research. That is a key University in Shanghai before coming component of the scientific mission of to the United States, then obtained a the Stowers Institute. master’s degree and Ph.D. in molecular “Jim is technologically excellent,” and cellular biology at New York said Dr. Davidson in recommending University Medical School. Dr. Coffman. “One of his major He joined Dr. Hood’s lab at the Our symbol is this tough and wiry contributions here has been his University of Washington in 1995 and development of a robotic technology in 1998 was promoted to affiliate tree, which embodies the survival of for purification by assistant professor. hope against adversity. multiplexed affinity chromatography columns. But Jim is also a scholar, and a thoughtful developmental biologist.” Dr. Coffman was born in Arlington, Va., received his bachelor’s degree in biology at Carleton College and his 9 Douglas A. Melton Scientist Inspired by the Child in his Life

A little boy diagnosed with juvenile Biology at the University of California- diabetes when he was six months old Berkeley. inspired Doug Melton, in a very personal The Scientific Advisory Board created way, to apply his scientific knowledge to the scientific mission of the Stowers finding the means for that little boy – Institute, focusing on a multidisciplinary, and perhaps a million other people – to systems approach to genomics study. live normal lives. The Board also directed the recent The needs of his son Sam, now search for the first scientists to head 8 years old, have turned Dr. Melton’s laboratories in the Stowers Institute attention in recent years from the more when it opens its doors for research general questions that typically concern toward the end of 2000. developmental biologists to the very Born in Chicago, Dr. Melton earned specific one of how to grow a pancreas. a bachelor’s degree in honors biology He has become a crusader as well as from the University of Illinois, then went scientist – leaving his Harvard lab to to Cambridge University in England as urge Congress to agree to federal funding the recipient of a Marshall Scholarship. of stem cell research and playing a He earned a B.A. in history and philosophy public role to increase support for of science at Cambridge, then remained diabetes research. there to earn a Ph.D. in molecular In the process, he has shared his biology at Trinity College and MRC private agony with many, describing the Laboratory of Molecular Biology. daily regimen of injections and blood Doug and Sam Melton (Photo courtesy of He joined the Harvard faculty tests, diet and exercise needed for Sam Juvenile Diabetes Foundation) in 1981. In addition to chairing his to survive each day. Dr. Melton, who is chairman of the department, he is a Howard Hughes “Sam must face a very uncertain Department of Molecular and Cellular Medical Institute investigator and future,” he said at a White House Biology at Harvard, joins three other principal investigator at the Juvenile ceremony in June. “This is more than prominent scientists on the Stowers Diabetes Foundation Center for Islet any child should have to think about. Institute advisory body. The chairman is Cell Transplantation at Harvard Medical We can cure diabetes… I am unwilling Dr. Leroy Hood, who is chairman of the School. He is also co-director of the to accept the enormity of the medical Department of Molecular Biotechnology Center for Genomics and Proteomics and psychological burden that diabetes imposes on children, and I am personally devoted to bringing it to an end for Sam and everyone who suffers from “I am unwilling to accept the enormity of this awful disease.” the medical and psychological burden that diabetes This effort by the newest appointee imposes on children, and I am personally devoted to the Scientific Advisory Board of the to bringing it to an end for Sam and everyone Stowers Institute illustrates the potential that basic research represents for saving who suffers from this awful disease.” lives and improving people’s health. While most research is not so obviously focused toward a cure, it opens many at the University of Washington School that Harvard recently began to organize, doors to research paths that scientists can of Medicine. Other members are Dr. Eric an undertaking that shares many of the follow to worthwhile results in curing Davidson, Norman Chandler Professor of concepts that form the research mission and preventing devastating diseases, at California Institute of of the Stowers Institute. including cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart Technology, and Dr. Michael Levine, Most of Dr. Melton’s early research, disease, in addition to diabetes. Professor of Genetics and Developmental which won him election to the National

10 Working Conditions Gritty continued from page 7 Academy of Sciences in 1995, was aimed at understanding how genes, right after Many of the people building the Stowers Institute, like Mr. Jarman and fertilization, set up the body pattern of the Rick Fortner, grew up on Missouri farms. Farm life taught them the practical early embryo. In one part of that work, skills that launched them into construction. using frog embryos, he discovered that “My dad worked in the city,” recalled Mr. Fortner. “Basically, my mom and there is a localized information molecule I ran the farm. So at an early age I learned how to work and how to make things work.” in cells at the bottom of the egg that Some others, like Timmie Richardson and Mr. Seiter, turned from jobs encodes a protein telling the cells what with limited futures to the greater promise offered by rigorous physical work. to do. In other work, he found that Still others are the second or third generation of their families in the same becoming a nerve cell is a default, or building trade. pre-disposed, state, while inductive signals Robert Parra, who directed the Havens Erectors crew that did ironwork on are needed for a cell to become skin. the administrative building, graduated from college, became a secondary special By contrast, biologists had long assumed education teacher and wrestling coach. But after a few years, he decided he that making a nerve cell was the more could provide a better life for his two gifted daughters by falling back on the complicated endeavor. ironworking trade of his father, brother and uncle. But in recent years, driven by love One day, he recalls, he went to the Kansas state prison at Lansing to work for his son, he has become fully focused on how the body makes an organ – in on an expansion and as the construction crew was being escorted through the this case the pancreas. In an extremely prison he saw a former student – now an inmate. “I said, ‘Isaac, what happened?’ ambitious pursuit, he is looking for a way And he said, ‘Ah, Mr. Parra, I made a mistake, but it will never happen again.’” to make pancreatic tissue in culture for Ed Hale, son of a pipefitter, started his apprenticeship in pipefitting as a transplanting into diabetics. He wants to 17-year-old – on the Monday after he graduated from William Chrisman High accomplish that by starting off with stem School in Independence, Mo., in 1962. Gary Chumley started his career in cells, which have stirred great interest as a electricity the day after he graduated from Wyandotte High School in Kansas possible tissue repair kit for many diseases. City, Kan., in 1958. Jerry Schaefer started in a summer sheet metal job 14 years “The pancreas has an enormous ago, then grew through the trade and became an owner of the company. Jack medical significance,” explained Searcy followed his father and three uncles into sheet metal work. Timmie Dr. Melton. “It has a special cell called Richardson’s son has followed her into construction labor. the beta cell, which makes insulin. It “When I started in construction 30 years ago you didn’t even carry a pencil; reads the amount of glucose, or sugar, now we have computers,” said Mr. Searcy, who regularly uses e-mail to keep in the blood, then secretes insulin so tools and materials in the pipeline for his sheet metal crews. our bodies can use it. But in the case of Most can recall distinctive things about other construction projects on diabetes the pancreas is dysfunctional.” which they have worked, but they say two things make this job stand apart. The ability to grow pancreatic First, there is the intense involvement of the Stowers family in the project. Jim tissue, he pointed out, would have an and Virginia Stowers make regular Sunday visits to the site with son-in-law Jeff enormous impact on reducing health care Johnson, project manager. And Mr. Stowers often roams the site on Friday costs. The United States alone currently afternoons with old friend Jack Jonathan, both of them with cameras in hand. spends $105 billion a year treating Beyond that, the people building the Stowers Institute express awe at diabetes – roughly seven times the entire the mission of the Stowers Institute – basic research to contribute to better budget of the National Institutes of treatment or cures for major diseases. Health, the primary underwriter of basic As Timmie Richardson explained: “I lost all my family to cancer. My aunts biomedical research. And, for unknown and uncles and father died of it – and my mother has cancer now. It means a lot reasons, the problem seems to be growing. to me when Jeff comes around and tells me what a particular area that we are About 16 million people suffer from building will be used for. I was first on this job, and when we finish I want to be diabetes in this country, of which about the one to vacuum up the last little crumb of wood.” 1 million have Type 1, or juvenile diabetes, the most severe form. continued on back

11 The Stowers Report Vol. II, Issue I Published by the “Between one in 85 and one in 200 “It has been, to some sense, a Stowers Institute for Medical Research newborns will be fully insulin dependent, prejudice of the medical community that President: that is, will be a Type 1 diabetic, by the if you want to fix the adult you study the James E. Stowers Jr. age of 18,” he said. “That is close to an adult. I think that an equally valuable Vice-President: epidemic….It’s obvious that if we approach is that if you want to understand Virginia G. Stowers how to regenerate adult tissue – to stop Chairman of understood, with these functional Scientific Advisory Board: genomics approaches, how genes make the process of aging, to cure cancer – Leroy E. Hood, M.D., Ph.D. cells and organs, that would have a long- don’t concentrate only on the adult. But Chief Administrative Officer: let’s learn how the organism made those Nelson R. Pleau term significance for treating disease.” body parts in the first instance.” Communications Coordinator: Stressing the importance of basic Laurie Wimberly research in providing eventual cures for 1000 E. 50th Street Kansas City, Missouri 64110 diseases, he said: “It’s not widely Tel: (816) 926-4000 appreciated, I think, the power of Fax: (816) 444-8644 www.stowers-institute.org developmental biology to affect the normal Editor and Senior Writer: maintenance and repair of the adult. Shirley Christian If you take a simple thing like the heart Photographer: Mitch Deck and did a literature search you’d find Design and Layout: innumerable papers on the function of Kuhn & Wittenborn Advertising the heart, on the disease of the heart, on the drug effects and so forth. But very few on how to make a heart.

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