WINTER p.4 Uncle Sam: Scientist p.18 Follow the yellow brick road 09 p.12 Canary in the research lab p.26 Big science in the balance Lens
U.S. science: Under the gun
A PUBLICATION OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER WWW.MC.VANDERBILT.EDU/LENS – Cover: New competitors emerge in the race for discovery. Lens Illustration by Antonello Silverini (http://antonellosilverini.myblog.it). A New Way of Looking at Science
WINTER 2009
VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1
EDITOR Bill Snyder
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lisa A. DuBois Nicole Garbarini, Ph.D. Gary Kuhlmann Leigh MacMillan, Ph.D. Bill Snyder
PHOTOGRAPHY/ILLUSTRATION Neil Brake Dave Cutler Dean Dixon Paul Fetters Billy Howard Joe Howell Dana Johnson The true worth of an experimenter Tom Kochel Ken Perkins consists in his pursuing not only Anne Rayner Antonello Silverini what he seeks in his experiment, DESIGN Diana Duren but also what he did not seek.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS – CLAUDE BERNARD Nancy Humphrey
DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA/ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS Wayne Wood
EDITORIAL OFFICE Office of News and Public Affairs D-3237A MCN Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2390 615-322-4747 E-mail address: [email protected] www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/lens
Lens is published twice a year by Vanderbilt University Medical Center in cooperation with the VUMC Office of News and Public Affairs and the Office of Research. Len s ® is a registered mark of Vanderbilt University.
Our goal: to explore the frontiers of biomedical research, and the social and ethical dimensions of the revolution that is occurring in our understanding of health and disease. Through our Lens , we hope to provide for our readers – scientists and those who watch science alike – different perspectives on the course of discovery, and a greater appreciation of the technological, eco - nomic, political and social forces that guide it.
© 2009 by Vanderbilt University TABLE OF Lens contents W0IN9 TER www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/lens
2 CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY Even at this time of economic adversity, we must clearly articulate the impor - tance of biomedical research for advancing human health – and for the vitality of our nation, writes Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs.
4 UNCLE SAM : SCIENTIST During the past century, America reached the pinnacle of science and technology, thanks in no small measure to its immigrant spirit, diversity and genius for innovation. Uncle Sam’s position of strength can no longer be taken for granted. It’s time for a new “Corps of Discovery.” page 2 Making the case for science 10 THE CASE FOR SERENDIPITY Simple curiosity about how things work can revolutionize understanding of human disease and change the world: examples from the 20th century. n u
12 CANARY IN THE RESEARCH LAB g e
There are ominous signs that all is not well in biomedical science: five years of h flat NIH budgets; young scientists leaving academic research. Perhaps most t r
disturbing: U.S. students consistently rank below their peers in other countries e d
when it comes to mastery of math and science. n U
17 IT ’S NOT ALL ABOUT SCIENCE The United States is drifting toward “a whole series of national-scale crises,” worries Vanderbilt informatics guru Bill Stead, M.D. “I think as a society we’ve really lost our ability to do anything important.”
18 THE NEW OZ A new biomedical research metropolis in southern Singapore, dubbed a “scientific Emerald City,” is attracting scientists from around the world. While not a flood, page 12 Signs of a potential calamity it raises concerns about an American “brain drain.”
22 NEEDED : A QUANTUM LEAP Revitalizing the nation’s biomedical research enterprise will require much more than tinkering around the edges, Vanderbilt scientists say.
26 BIG SCIENCE IN THE BALANCE There is no single best way to revitalize the nation’s biomedical research enter - prise, Vanderbilt scientists argue. Whatever is undertaken, however, it is crucial to empower “the creativity of individuals.”
28 ONE STUDENT ’S STORY Q-vaughnia Hornbeck aspired to be a dentist. Then she enrolled in the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt, and “everything changed.” The high school senior now plans to become a neuroscientist.
page 18 It’s a beautiful place to work
LENS/WINTER 2009 1 T S I T N E I C S : M A S E L C N U
Challenge “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” and – Albert Einstein opportunity
How academic medical centers can he nation’s biomedical research community is indis - putably experiencing challenging times. The budget of help reverse disturbing trends T the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary source of biomedical research dollars, has not increased for several years; when adjusted for inflation, NIH funding has actually declined by 13 percent over the last five years. This, combined with a decline By Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D. in U.S. students choosing academic research career s1 ultimately may Dean, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have a negative impact on worldwide health and could lead to the ero - Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs sion of biomedical science as a fundamental pillar of the U.S. economy. In short, we are sowing the seeds of attrition in a magnificent edifice: our nation’s biomedical research enterprise. This issue of Lens magazine examines this unprecedented challenge to our future, and explores ways that we – the research community at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with our colleagues throughout the country – can advocate responsibly and effectively for progress. Why is Vanderbilt raising its voice? We are among the fortunate academic medical centers that are seamlessly connected to a leading research university, and we have leveraged that overall strength and connectivity to invest in programs that will greatly accelerate the realization of individualized and cost-
2 LENS/WINTER 2009 JOE HOWELL bi impresv inv N econm Fam bi and m $20 m b e of a $2.30 inv evn heal than N ing prevn apro both increa to acti ing ti e to prov respon w and a f t C e ef n nati T g p rom h co nd x xpan y ew r o e hi m bud f hi om O l ately ore IH e am ea rted ectiv nter N leap ma l F no estm estd io s vity e ch NIH onal the has th tl servi o h i ami id healt IH mil In But N H Fo bu li re p than in edi our of n outsi ver my, has ealthcr get xi y than ke ding se le e sibl es in tio atio er’s w care sul more r e re sin in 2 f $3 mately exce ic eco the cost fal ent li l , mo orw gains an cal ( oul 0 the up resach ce i acros drug US ceive o 9,0 $1.4 e eco n and Van a i e on es a ted 0 new retun ess ncreas de c f the len nwide, cc bil s) ity 20 nom bio 6, far adit retun onomic ney o care and why. ed resach d co l i ard US fo A o ong-term no f n nex in ord than in age derbilt ac in oth f kep Uni urse d r human relati in di io to medi disc bi broade bi repot. tha wages my $60 A. healt deli o wage tivity rec spent new ic the adi and qual over t in benfits n rect more li ncies, ur om Tens The er clea o ona comunit versi 2 f t w 7, adve of g on i f over isc ent the on) and n very. I pace outpu ve cal nationa c governmen thre e milon loc edical n 000 to tional dramt it jobs als ampuse s. 6.7 l Un efc rly , $420 ne al inves w sc re disea that f y ty This car tha 3 ac to ye al i rsity y, healt wou impro the a ec re o ould sc the w ien yea sult e-to of ive per with cording It art jobs Jun ars e per o res sea diagno on ca and e in al wit t n t busine f life s cre tme ce maj r jobs l mi is fo ( rs ld of n fla i Chi t cie is $1 omic ica ce a i ulte e, h year r – c in c y in r s. a e n (209), s lone h one ch ity r ve ulat ent ea i y t verag at e st ated funde nt ll c do t ; infl ben a t n wil is 2 whil he nce ield ly o e Ev orit io nt. ra reas mo bus b t ca whic ion br t ate me 00 minu ur d wit – a st w me il Med lar a c sou r 2 n. t s ns go , t bout ev e fo e impac pro a oa e o aling li ! ic fr impr o age 00 ev re 8 -wi y r a nt ines t a fo fit ed na e e. alow why l an r on in ac h y nt en io d S nd be om nd der a s t rces h re en f t re uch re 8, s NI he t the tha ic rom tion. $1 es t n s $1. by de e g of gin f por fund iv xi a in of if s duc al un ov t s ood our ting f nd plus a into our t H, . ha up or n ity - fo t a us e d t a n t r - - s s - i R ec a ye gai al m i re phar it si i ( per pi st be w res ag the l in Ec ab cli pot at ex 3 2 1 di ac to phar di cho st U l am cha ti al us a It w ncr mpa n it es it nd Murp “I K de s udi r o obe hic i SA a t on edi pel se et c on ar ac to ent out e ni su z ic s t ul im v ri aren ne. so n t ca m ns ept o r en ra r l ed hes er d ea ra as , hy apy, ’s c tl es ng act om 20 but t cal m m e Why Cu VU t, to i h Y n t n os es ca ct ine os rug) ed rt l int s pr ti mi a y ble e y he ” our Gl due se s te ed 5 s t h m ac ac y e ind y an i ). m ta t er ti 3 al t am He nat m i r 0 l To y s ov ho on , ed s t ro o . er obal pie ndi MC arge s tr r , Whil bur edi eut eut s l ons ri w m ke 14: i ak A d t t ts en ti i i , ou If ma cos or d p Own zi K ed l, exp ve de, hat i kel w n hat pel als to “ pl is oul io and s a ark our to r vi erc fe ade e .M, ng t ta vi ci le u Ke ic ic one ls a st . and l me nti es a ly l nal m t li Heal dual the i i wer g i pro under y , pa ne Beca li Th “ dual al al s i me fe en t 871- de d e et er gen t ne r w ( , n s r ope P uch vi t ind apr he ty es Bac th to i ov ona s. t a a ti i he be ill nves p fo an t c t h.D cade e hr t t w gr – r n nd st dic s r ult oul th xpe o s h er lac ent t e r es andig er uc o in ia r ben s p i dr n. a 904, use d h ea f kyard: o udi tha e e M l s ti m e o f J re s esponib vi of bout e ulta c an ox t ls u of ob s Initave, xpe ne t al , Topel, r e ., an a pr Un lth, am the t d di c hr omple rec c a qui ar u ol gh dual es ing poul to f po t ev t ndi t forw es i m l ew es of ag v w r re de oc f 2 fi hi a ma ough Outlok ong e ecul O s phy, el f nt ri ar i at it ent nc 0 er i us t com t s pula pa t r se mo at $3.2 r w edur cul s dr econmi f H thi ct i ect en , ed he ed, ng ia i he at i nove ins m f te y n c y r ar t changes ne pr R.H, i it r ober t ow x ugs ar ti es dent at s ew ce per om e ien deca ly a y re avi s t dr be r bet h ubs P ch, St p pl ogr t of te ti d , on te oni ea a pons i s es June, v t ha h.D di ons is nd t i op a NIH o hal he ons at o l $1 t e st t io ar d l d n r ard. condut r. w t w ha for 206 a s y t e t ve il i po t r i and has es des l c r e he det The “ e d ia fy ant ar a t her ma ow t adv biom u e oul re en s s f l , in t i ., n s hat bi es da s rs i , nr peci n s he i g bi s wo ing t es of Physican at of on 208 sul s in om it r F ye er can and s 5 i ? i c l a apeut i di hear o pe ta ol d new l t ance, t al l undig w s ive e 0 i in 1970 ma t l o i uld y c t c m O t ilty huge Value t ut t pe e on i bas led f se he 0 ly e due on on e rs and y, s m i ed o ne l ine be c , of ic as l ke on r nly t s - e - e e i al e c - edical o Helps Scients,” f adversity Health to of 60, “D i Thanks g deca l t can t and i r or t i i heal com acde t t t i he l ni col pr m an d nat i com nat cl r w and m uni gr n n ayi mpr n novat ng he s o o io es al ic es r ear e ty der any edi og r ow eat Your hea ent s hi la pr bi s n ear ear l N p i i quel ar ci ng eagus e on on’ be t t e ar pl m dr f cleary g as gh Vander It Thes of om r ot o ov h A or ing cal ng ag i a am enc a e m pr ch ch. ev e op t lt e no et i nd nd be pol ugs , a o s Scien ect t and t be co m a Stae ’s pr s and e bi dat i h e og r y s di dvance the he s t edi n i t i c s i our c c ma e vel hin am nf r r on resarch t o nves D iv and Longevity,” T om e and cha e ho o s ipe s nte t s he r i , achi e pat t abnk” nt ha t ng ns oge t rt es o la fo am i NA c il ar di a ro ar ur ent n nat int bi pl s r d r a t i nd uni ar rge- eg ear undat el e ti m out rp at l ho s ni ; l e l Econmy,” ound se es ng, t s bi l ie bing: r s s lt es gen t d the Dec t me e pr an d ker ol i ev ves ai s ci er es but a he i t ut as nf ar hum ngi nt re ch , on om at , t o t ia d i of e al put L e n ve ov sc ing y s i our ur e. and e ir i or nc e r a pos nt f on – e, s ti me t E so on t or t now a pr and re al – t io a 5, r e i ng i de s a o edi w a t o t bi ve m ticula ar de dent i pe en ds Y s N ve n ch al U nd w he a f hat c Jnal our e, i of n iv f r gl e s our it nt sm r i l wil of et ma l n n 208 a c or g at i s ecogniz S er act ncr .S o e ow, er i cr cal t s ur en or ca acy. f nfor gl ean gr c c i new world he t bi g or cont i que ne / hi ve s t sc me l a e i a among al i ar hat cs our wil king r en i be d he n b loba ion ha fying ar obal l ins ea s ow omedic es ic in W rt epor alt s g ore . tude y e a t cie comunit l t ove g mat h s d This u he nc nd fr sing st LE d i of ur – nat N I s ains t wor diagnos we r. e e ot er h. l ac into u a of NS a itu s, i dr ions a a r nce ed e fr n t ct Politca . an n ar inves alow p ide r he s a comunit fe nts vibr he t ed r infor ion. W om ional E T cole S amt even p t de t o , and t ion e e t ldwie. b the t d our we ev er he wor h r he o ove ion he a newa hat ac ce l u y ntifc s ones ac e under rt i c l mic about op c t ca t c s R ant a Familes sa r tme u ou te se mus i cos ontiue ros O fas of s pas mat ge i tic r n our k ic al d p s t e, c st in mples i ies g su ur o nt er 9 0 0 2 en hos or on ble a is t the s t at s of of a ly t nts e . ta at t e. ion - t r , t t s is u ie s he t t y ed k o - - e s -
3 Under the gun CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY T S I T N E I C S : M A S E L C N U UNCLE SAM: SCIENTIST
BY LISA A. DUBOIS ILLUSTRATION BY NORMAN ROCKWELL © 1928 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing Co., Indianapolis, IN n u All rights reserved. www.curtispublishing.com g e h t r e d During the last century, America soared to the top of the n U world in science and technology. The United States out - stripped all other countries in the number of science-related Nobel prizes awarded, in bringing new biotechnical prod - ucts to the market, and in the amount of money spent on basic research. ))) Here, at the beginning of the 21st century, however, Uncle Sam’s position of strength is in peril, hamstrung by the triple-whammy of reduced fed - eral funding for basic research, a flagging biotech industr y, and a public education system so rife with inadequacies that it is failing to turn on young people to careers in the sciences.
4 LENS/WINTER 2009 E L S N / W T N I R E 2 9 0 0
5 Under the gun UNCLE SAM: SCIENTIST T S I T N E I C S : M A S E L C N U
IRONICALLY, F at the same time that the United States is trying to hold on to its vaguely resembles the biotech ven - S C frontrunner status, countries like China and Singapore, among ture capitalists in the U.S.,” Bishop U Y
others, are muscling up and making mas sive federal commitments says. “We’ve dominated the scene.” S E T
to support research and technology. These nations are banking on a Americans tend to be a prac - R U
concept that some now see as the backbone of economic wealth in tical people, and their scientific O C the new century: innovation. Investment in innovation creates history reflects that. Prior to the new industry, strengthens the national education system and 19th century, American science improves the well being of the citizenry at large. was famously empirical, unlike Competition from foreign countries for innovative discovery the science going on in most of
n should be a healthy phenomenon. The problem is that America Europe, which was largely based u seems to be on the verge of conceding the race. “America is losing on theory and experimentation. g
e its innovation edge with profound implications for our security People in the United States h
t and prosperity as a nation,” corporate consultant and author John applied their ingenuity to the
r Kao, M.D., M.B.A., told The Huffington Post last year. high-tech endeavors of the day, e
d “The genius of the American system is the ability to create such as the steel industry, in ))) n new things based on new knowledge,” adds Ellen Wright Clayton, building bridges, roads and U J. MICHAEL BISHOP, M.D., M.D., J.D., professor of Pediatrics and Law at Vanderbilt canals, in solving health problems CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF University. “And if we don’t have that, then I think it really affects caused by contaminated water CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO (UCSF), the vitality of the country. I think that it really is based on creativity , systems. Yet while the physical REMAINS OPTIMISTIC. and without that, the heart’s gone.” and engineering sciences were J. Michael Bishop, M.D., chancellor of the University of booming, Americans lagged behind their European colleagues California, San Francisco (UCSF), is optimistic that, given its past, the in the medical sciences, such as biology and physiology. Medical nation will rise to the challenge of its future – in biomedicine as well schools served as certificate factories, requiring only four months of as the equally competitive areas of engineering and computer science. study or less, and most were unaffiliated with universities “For the moment, we still have the front rank in the world in or hospitals. biomedical science,” says Bishop, who shared the 1989 Nobel In the early 20th century, Abraham Flexner, Ph.D., changed Prize in medicine with Harold Varmus, M.D., for their discovery that scenario. Charged by the Rockefeller Foundation to evaluate all of oncogenes. “What has distin - the medical school programs in the country, in 1910 he issued the E K
A guished our science in the world “Flexner Report,” demanding that medical education require a rig - R
B has been its extraordinary breadth orous course of study in the basic sciences and classical languages. L I
E of diversity. We’ve taken on just In response, the Rockefeller and other philanthropic founda - N about every accessible challenge tions donated $154 million to improve the quality of American that exists in biomedicine.” medical education. These unprecedented dollars from the private In addition, Americans have sector spurred states to begin channeling money into universities, shown unique insight by forging launching an era of governmental, institutional and foundational alliances between academicians support for biomedical science that remains in effect today. and businesspeople, translating Also in the early 1900s, the agency that was the precursor to fundamental research findings the National Institutes of Health (NIH) moved from strictly focus - into products that are useful at the ing on infectious and contagious scourges like cholera and yellow bedside and in the marketplace. fever, to developing vaccines and antitoxins, and then to investi - Plus, the United States has fostered gating noncontagious problems, like pellagra, that were caused by ))) an enclave of venture capitalists dietary deficiencies. who helped create a thriving trade ELLEN WRIGHT CLAYTON, M.D., J.D., DIRECTOR OF THE VANDERBILT in biotechnology. IMMIGRANT SPIRIT CENTER FOR BIOMEDICAL ETHICS “No other country has had a Some of these needs arose as immigrants, escaping wars, oppres - AND SOCIETY, CITES CREATIVITY. community of investors that even sion and poverty overseas, poured onto American shores, causing
6 LENS/WINTER 2009 T S
))) I T N E I
WE LEARNED THAT FEDERAL C S
INVESTMENTS IN BASIC : M
RESEARCH CAN SHORE UP A A STRUGGLING ECONOMY. S E L C N U
public health issues to bubble up to the surface of the American fivefold multiplier effect,” notes Heidi Hamm, Ph.D., chair of consciousness. Many of these immigrants also brought with them Vanderbilt’s Department of Pharmacology. “There is a real eco - something else – a background based in scientific theory. nomic benefit of doing research.” “During the 1920s and ‘30s,” explains Cyrus Mody, Ph.D., an For the next 35 years, various presidents and legislators con - assistant professor at Rice University who teaches about the histor y tinued to grow the NIH budget, convinced of the parallels of innovation and technology, “some of those immigrants – and between personal health and economic health, between innovative especially the children of immigrants – really started to penetrate research and international leadership. into the American scientific elite.” The hallmarks of American research have been its lack of hier - For example, the three American physician-researchers who archy and its encouragement of independence. Grants submitted by
were primarily responsible for the polio vaccine were of immigrant young investigators are evaluated on a level playing field with n
Jewish stock: Albert Sabin was born in Russia, Hilary Koprowski grants submitted by senior scientists, even by Nobel laureates. u g
was from Poland, and Jonas Salk was born in America to Russian Researchers are allowed to pursue their personal areas of interest, e h
immigrant parents. Spanish-American biochemist Severo Ochoa and even to change course if they so choose. t
won the 1959 Nobel Prize for his work on the synthesis of RNA. Also, they are not limited to government funding, as a num - r e
French-born Nobel laureate Andre Cournand came to the United ber of private foundations, notably the Howard Hughes Medical d States in 1930 and later helped develop cardiac catheterization, a Institute (HHMI), provide substantial support for basic biomed - n U technique that revolutionized treatment of heart disease. ical research. The career trajectory of Harvard’s Douglas Melton, Essentially, as a new pool of intellectuals began establishing Ph.D., illustrates this distinction. laboratories in the U.S., the quality of biomedical science quickly An HHMI investigator, Melton was studying the developmen - vaulted to the top of the chain. tal biology of frogs, when his infant son was diagnosed with type 1 The Depression almost destroyed this progress when the diabetes. Anxious to address the needs of his child, Melton turned endowments for many foundations supporting research crashed with his attention to stem cell research. He later approached the scientific the stock market. Thanks to the efforts of Louisiana Senator Joseph review team at HHMI, explaining why and how he wanted to E. Randall, Alabama Senator (Joseph) Lister Hill and others, the switch directions and study pancreatic beta cells. The reviewers U.S. government stepped in and began funneling money into the examined his proposal and agreed to continue his funding. Melton NIH to support basic scientists working on fundamental medical is now one of the leading stem cell researchers in the world. research, and to prevent America from losing its edge in this arena. The advantage to this system, which is fairly unique world - The aftermath of World War wide, is that it’s a tremendous motivator to young scientists, says N
O II solidly established the NIH as Steven McKnight, Ph.D., professor and chair of biochemistry at X I
D the major player in American the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. “If they suc - N
A biomedicine. For the first time, ceed, they get all the credit for their discoveries,” McKnight says. E
D leaders realized that federal invest - “The flip side is that if they fail during four, six or eight years in ments in basic research could the lab, they don’t get tenure and they lose their jobs. Job security actually shore up a struggling depends upon success.” economy. Largely under the direc - Based on any number of measurements, this system of torship of James A. Shannon, rewards has tended to breed excellence. Americans have surpassed M.D., Ph.D., the NIH budget their European and Asian counterparts in the number of break - expanded from $8 million in 1947 through discoveries, an advantage that continued throughout the to more than $1 billion in 1966. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton presidencies. What’s more, those dollars had a direct impact on state revenues, ECONOMIC DRAIN ))) because they were spread to 128 The trend of increased federal support came to an abrupt halt, academic medical centers scattered however, during the George W. Bush administration, which fund ed VANDERBILT PHARMACOLOGY CHAIR HEIDI HAMM, PH.D., BELIEVES across the country. the NIH at a flat level, amounting to a negative sum gain in RESEARCH HAS A “FIVEFOLD MULTIPLI - “Research dollars flow back research grants when factoring in the inflation rate. ER EFFECT” ON THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. into the local community with a Scientists complain that the flat NIH budget is squelching
LENS/WINTER 2009 7 T S
I ))) T N E I
C “IFWE DON’T INVEST IN S
: SCIENCE AND EDUCATION, M
A WEWILL BECOME A SECOND- S RATE COUNTRY.” E L C N U
in novation and slowing progress. In the neurosciences, for example, biology revolution, if you want to call it that, is based upon discov - the funding crunch has essentially squandered momentum that was eries that happened in academic labs across the country. We have blazing new inroads in the 1990s, the “decade of the brain,” dozens and dozens of drugs and compounds on the market today asserts Randy Blakely, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t had those early discoveries Molecular Neuroscience. taking place in the United States.” During this period, “we saw the convergence of the disciplines This view is not universally shared. Slipping in science should of molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, brain imaging, devel - not affect the nation’s bottom line, some observers argue, because opmental biology and translational work,” Blakely says. “We got up we can simply exploit discoveries made by others. to speed to really tackle most, if not all of the major brain diseases. According to Christopher Hill, Ph.D., professor of public policy
n Then we geared down.” and technology at George Mason University, companies as diverse
u This has happened at a most inopportune time, he continues. as Google and Wal-Mart have become wealthy not by applying g
e The American population is aging, which automatically puts more research conducted in the United States, but “by structuring h
t people at risk for neurological diseases of the elderly, like Alzheimer’s human work and organizational practices in radical new ways.”
r and Parkinson’s. Also, soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and In an article published in the policy journal Issues in Science e
d Afghanistan with neurological problems and traumatic brain injuries and Technology in March 2007, Hill maintained that the United n are taxing the boundaries of current medical knowledge. States has already begun to move into what he calls a “post-scien - U Inadequate funding of research ultimately is a drain on the tific society,” one in which “the leading edge of innovation … economy, scientists insist . whether for business, industrial, consumer, or public purposes, “Biomedical science is a huge part of the economic engine of will move from the workshop, the laboratory, and the office to the this country,” says Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the Vanderbilt studio, the think tank, the atelier, and cyberspace.” University School of Medicine and associate vice chancellor for Harvard economist Richard Freeman, Ph.D., agrees. He told Health Affairs. “Science is fueling start-up companies and industry The New York Times in April 2008 that Americans should worry because it’s discovered, published. It’s information available that less about their nation’s research status and more about “develop - those companies use to do their next thing.” ing new ways of benefiting from scientific advances made in other One reason Congress agreed to double the NIH budget, from countries.” $13.6 billion in 1998 to $27.3 billion in 2003, was to preserve While it is true that, especially in this age of ubiquitous elec - the preeminence of the country’s pharmaceutical industry, says tronic communications, scientific advances made in one country John Oates, M.D., founding director of Vanderbilt’s Division of are almost-instantaneously shared with the rest of the world, there Clinical Pharmacology. still are strong arguments in favor of retaining a leadership posi -
L NIH is the powerhouse for tion in research. L E the discoveries necessary for the For one thing, a lively and well-supported scientific enterprise W O
H development of new drugs. “If we has characterized countries, dating back to ancient Greece, that E
O lose our superiority in that area, have had a transformative impact on the world. “It’s not a predic - J it’s going to be one more area tion,” says Melton, “it’s sort of a fact, based on history, that if we that we’re not exporting in,” don’t invest in science and education, we will become a second- Oates argues. “We’ll have to go rate country.” back to making shoes and send - For another, “homegrown” biomedical research can be more ing them to China.” readily applied to solving the unique health challenges that Jack Dixon, Ph.D., HHMI’s emerge from the nation’s ethnic and genetic melting pot. chief scientific officer and former dean for Scientific Affairs at the STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY University of California, San The recent revolution now driving our understanding of the ))) Diego, agrees. genetic underpinnings of disease means that for the first time we
JOHN OATES, M.D., BELIEVES FEDERAL “I think it’s essential to be may be able to solve some of the age-old riddles confronting por - SUPPORT IS KEY TO MAINTAINING THE on the front-end of discovery,” tions of our population: why cystic fibrosis, for example, occurs NATION’S PHARMACEUTICAL PIPELINE. Dixon says. “The molecular more commonly among people of Northern European descent,
8 LENS/WINTER 2009 T S I T N E I C S : M A S E L C N U L
why Pima Indians have such a high rate of diabetes and obesity, “I’m hopeful that the E H
and why African-American women are more likely to die of breast collapse of the U.S. financial C O cancer than their white counterparts. industry will make it clear to the K M
Studies of diverse minority groups also can advance an entire leadership and to the American O T field of inquiry. For example, the BRCA1 and BRCA2 cancer genes public that science and technolog y were identified by researchers trying to find out why Ashkenazi have been and must be the source Jews had a higher risk of developing certain breast and ovarian can - of our future economic health,” cers. By isolating the genetic, environmental and dietary variations says Bruce Alberts, Ph.D., among America’s ethnic subsets, scientists can better understand professor of biochemistry and
how certain diseases progress in the greater population. biophysics at UCSF and past n
“The idea that fundamental research can go on elsewhere, and president of the National u g
then we can optimally translate it into our health care system I Academy of Sciences (NAS). e h think is an illusion,” argues Clayton, who directs the Vanderbilt During his tenure at the ))) t
Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society. NAS, Alberts joined a chorus of r e
“It’s like the way most people use a computer … They more scientific voices that called for BRUCE ALBERTS, PH.D., IS HOPEFUL d or less can get stuff done, but because they don’t have a clue how raw data from the newly THAT THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF n U it works, they don’t maximize the extent to which they use it.” sequenced human genome to be SCIENTISTS CAN BE THE CATALYST FOR “PEACE AMONG NATIONS.” George Hill, Ph.D., Vanderbilt’s associate dean for Diversity released into the public domain. in Medical Education, agrees that the United States has scarcely The data “should be made freely scratched the surface of the scientific opportunities provided by available to scientists everywhere in order to promote discoveries its heterogeneous population. Only he would go further: that will reduce the burden of disease, improve health around the America’s strength lies in the diversity of its scientists, as well as world, and enhance the quality of life for all humankind,” he said its population. at the time. “When you have individuals who have been affected by Alberts and others realized that they could best serve the these diseases in our educational pipeline, when you have people greater good by sharing the newfound information rather than of color, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, etc., hoarding it. And such has been the case. Releasing the human some of them are going to be interested in conducting research genome map to the world has launched new exploration into in these areas,” Hill argues. “When bright, inquisitive men and human genetics and into targeted therapies for treating individual women from a wide variety of patients.
N backgrounds attack these prob - “The scientific community may still be the only truly global O
S lems, we have a much better community,” says Bishop, UCSF’s chancellor. “And one of the N H
O chance of getting to the answers greatest satisfactions for me is being a part of that community – J
A that much faster.” a community that is by and large unselfish, by and large sharing. N
A As powerful as these argu - One where we’re working toward a common purpose across D ments may be, they may not nations, one in which we’re speaking the same language, not only persuade, given all of the other linguistically, but in terms of ethos and ambition.” economic and security challenges Bishop concedes that his view is optimistic. “But (we) believe facing the country. But wouldn’t that since science is the strongest and most cohesive global com - it be interesting if the answers munity in the world, it can be the catalyst for international to our current flailing economy cooperation and peace among nations.” LENS and inroads to world peace were found not in the halls of ))) Congress or on the floors of AMERICA’S STRENGTH LIES IN THE Wall Street, but rather in the DIVERSITY OF ITS SCIENTISTS, SAYS basic science laboratories of the VANDERBILT’S GEORGE HILL, PH.D. United States?
LENS/WINTER 2009 9 Y T I P I D
N The case for E R E S R mold in a Petri dish. O serendipity Penicillium
F Image provided by Visuals Unlimited. E
S Progress in biomedical science owes much to serendipity. Basic A
C research, the simple curiosity about how things work, has led to
E many of the discoveries that have transformed health, medicine, H
T and our understanding of human disease. Here is Lens magazine’s list of the “top 10” discoveries in biomedical science in the 20th century.
BY GARY KUHLMANN
**********************************************************************
1G9en1et0ics C1ho9les1te3rol 1P9eni2cil8lin n u g
e EXPERIMENTING WITH THE A RUSSIAN FINDING SCOTTISH BACTERIOLOGIST h common fruit – that cholesterol is Alexander t fly, Drosophila melanogaster , Columbia the main dietary culprit in atheroscle - Fleming accidentally grows a culture r
e University embryologist Thomas rosis – languishes for decades until of penicillin in a dirty Petri dish. At d
n Hunt Morgan demonstrates that genes researchers at the University of the outbreak of World War II, scien -
U are the mechanical basis of heredity, California, Berkeley, establish in a tists at Oxford University, working thereby launching the modern science landmark 1950 paper the role of with scant wartime resources, show of genetics. Morgan reportedly tells lipoproteins in the disease. In the penicillin can clear a range of infec - colleagues ab¶out experiments that early 1970s, Michael Brown¶and tions without the toxic effects of sulfa lead to unexpected results: “They [the Joseph Goldstein at the University of drugs. To keep the precious culture flies] will fool you every time.” His Texas Southwestern Medical School in out of t¶he hands of Nazis, it’s smug - first attempts to find tractable muta - Dallas discover cholesterol receptors gled into the United States, and the tions fail, but Morgan perseveres and and the mechanism by which blood mold thrives in the corn steep liquor discovers the white-eyed fly, which cholesterol is regulated. After a (the syrupy byproduct of corn starch leads to his discovery of sex-linked National Institutes of Health study production) in a federal fermentation inheritance. establishes that lowering cholesterol research lab in Peoria, Ill. By 1943, lowers the risk of heart attack, the penicillin makes it to the battlefields, stage is set for the introduction of the where it saves the lives of thousands of first cholesterol-lowering statin drugs wounded Allied soldiers. in 1987.
************************************************************************************************************** **************************************************************************************************************
19In2su1lin
WHEN CANADIAN SURGEON Frederick Banting gives up his struggling practice, he goes into the research laboratory to follow a nagging hunch about a cure for diabetes. In 1921, he and his assistant Charles Best reverse diabetes in a dog by injecting a concoction of pan - creatic extracts. John J.R. McLeod and James Collip at the University of Toronto help them purify the¶ extract, and in 1922, insulin saves the life of 14-year-old Leonard A 3-year-old boy before, and several weeks after Thompson. Within a year, the manufactured protein becomes available worldwide. receiving insulin in 1922. Photos courtesy of Eli Lilly and Company Archives.
10 LENS/WINTER 2009 U.S. PHYSICIAN Jonas Salk defies conven - Y T
tional wisdom to develop the vaccine I
1950 1954 P
Psychotropic Polio that helps eradicate polio. Contrary to the I
vaccine D drugs widely held view at the time that immu - N
nity develops only after the body survives E AN OBSERVATION by French naval sur - R infection by live virus, Salk observes that the body can E geon Henri Laborit that the antihista - acquire immunity through contact with inactivated S mine promethazine promotes “euphoric (killed) virus. Salk tests injections of inactivated polio R O quietude” in patients being treated for virus on himse¶lf and his family. Within two years of its F shock leads to development of one of widespread introduction in 1954, Salk’s vaccine nearly E S the first psychotropic drugs, chlorpro - eliminates polio in the United States, but a live oral vac - A mazine. By the early 1950s, the drug, Jonas Salk, M.D., inoculates a child cine developed by another American physician, Albert C against polio in 1954. Courtesy of the E marketed in the United States under the March of Dimes Foundation Sabin, later becomes the preferred alternative. H trade name Thorazine, has become a T ********************************************************************** mainstay in the treatment of schizo - ********************************************************************** phrenia. About the same time, two doctors in¶Staten Island, N.Y., Irving 1970 1970 Selikoff and Edward Robitzek, observe Reverse Gene that new anti-tuberculosis drugs appear transcriptase splicing to lift patients’ moods. One of the drugs, iproniazid, is found to block the enzyme monamine oxidase, thereby WORKING INDEPENDENTLY , David JOHN HOPKINS University microbiologi st increasing brain levels of neurotransmit - Baltimore of MIT and Howard Temin Hamilton Smith sparks a revolution in ters, and is championed by flamboyant of the University of Wisconsin- genetic research when he discovers the New York psychiatrist Nathan Kline for Madison discover an enzyme used by first restriction enzyme that cuts DNA. certain tumor viruses to “transform” After this comes a flurry of follow-up the treatment of depression. Thus n ¶ the cells they infect into cancer cells. discoveries: the first recombinant DNA u begins what has been called the “phar - g The enzyme, called reverse transcrip - ¶ molecule in 1972; DNA cloning in macologic revolution of psychiatry.” e
tase, allows these viruses to convert 1973; rapid DNA sequencing in 1977; h t their RNA into DNA copies that can DNA copying in 1983; and the first r e
slip into – and alter – the cell’s genetic automated gene sequencin g machine in d
instructions. This finding leads, in 1986. Understanding DNA has n 1984, to the discovery of the human paved t¶he way to gene therapy, DNA U 1953 immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In fingerprinting, a cloned sheep named Double Helix recognition of their discovery, ¶ Dolly, genetically engineered crops, Baltimore and Temin share the 1975 and efforts to sequence the human Nobel Prize in medicine with Renato genome – a feat accomplished in 2000 THE DISCOVERY of the double helix, Dulbecco. by Celera Genomics and the federally the twisted-ladder structure of funded Human Genome Project. deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), by ********************************************************************** American James Watson and his ********************************************************************** British colleague Francis Crick gives RESEARCHERS IN BRITAIN and rise to modern molecular biology. 1981 the United States, working Watson and Crick come to their pur - Stem cells independently, isolate cell suit with complementary backgrounds lines from mouse blastocysts in physics and X-ray crystallography that are pluripotent. These so- (Crick) and viral and bacterial genetics called embryonic stem cells can be grown into (Watson), but they act on the advice of all types of cells in tissue culture. In Caltech chemist Jerry Donahue – and 1988, James Thomson and co-work¶ers at the the first X-ray pictures of DNA taken University of Wisconsin-Madison extract the by British chemist Rosalind Franklin first human embryonic stem cell line – and in – to arrive at a correct DNA model. 2007, the same team, simultaneously with an In short order, their discovery yields ¶ independent team in Japan, reports that they groundbreaking insights into the have successfully restored pluripotency in Neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells genetic code and protein synthesis, human connective tissues cells. The newly project from a neurosphere in this confocal and a few decades later, helps produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) ce¶lls, as microscopy image taken by Sharona Even-Ram, Ph.D., of Hadassah University Hospital’s Goldyne new and powerful scientific tech - they’re dubbed, reproduce steadily, meaning Savad Institute of Gene Therapy in Jerusalem. niques, specifically recombinant DNA scientists should be able to produce an unlim - research, genetic engineering, rapid ited supply, and with the same chameleon-like characteristics as embryonic stem cells. gene sequencing, and monoclonal The discovery gives new hope to medical scientists who have been investigating how antibodies. stem cells might help treat age-related diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as stroke and diabetes.
LENS/WINTER 2009 11 B A L H C R A E S E R E H T N I Y R A N A C n u g e h t r e d n U
12 LENS/WINTER 2009 B A L H C R A E S E R E H T N Canary I Y R A N A in the C research
There are ominlouas signbs that all is not well in the nation’s biomedical research enterprise. n u
Thanks to five years of flat budgets at the National Institutes of Health, g e which supports the bulk of basic biomedical research in the United h t r
States, only about one in 10 research proposals is funded on the first sub - e d mission, down from 30 percent a decade ago. As a result, young scientists n U increasingly are leaving university research labs, taking jobs in other countries like Singapore that have more robust research budgets, or are leaving science altogether. Perhaps most ominous: U.S. students rank below their peers in other – mostly Asian – countries when it comes to mastery of math and science.
As Microsoft founder Bill Gates put it to the House Committee on Science and Technology last March, “Too many of our students fail to graduate from high school with the basic skills they will need to succeed in the 21st century economy … Although our top universities continue to rank among the best in the world, too few American students are pursuing degrees in science and technology.”
“My fear is we’re going to lose a generation of young investigators,” adds William Lawson, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Lawson contributed to a March 2008 report by a consortium of academic health centers, including Vanderbilt, which warned that the nation’s research “pipeline” may be “broken.”
BY BILL SNYDER ILLUSTRATION BY KEN PERKINS
LENS/WINTER 2009 13 B A L H C R A E S E
R Some E H T
N observers I Y R A
N dispute A C this “sky is falling”
rBy meany maeasurces, frotm iR&oD spending . in their careers,” adds Jack Dixon, Ph.D., rare chance to conduct high-risk, high- to the annual number of highly cited chief scientific officer of the Howard impact, high-potential biomedical research. publications, from the reputation of its Hughes Medical Institute and former dean Steven McKnight, Ph.D., professor universities, to the lion’s share of Nobel for Scientific Affairs at the University of and chair of biochemistry at the n
u laureates who work here, “the United California, San Diego. “If they’re spending University of Texas Southwestern Medical g States still leads the world in science and a lot of their time on the treadmill of School, was one of the first Pioneer e
h technology,” conclude RAND Corporation writing and submitting and rewriting and awardees. He used the funds to investigate t scientists Titus Galama, Ph.D., M.B.A., resubmitting, then they’re not spending the metabolic cycle of yeast, later transfer - r e and James Hosek, Ph.D., in a 2008 their time doing experiments that will ring those discoveries to the brain in d
n report, “U.S. Competitiveness in Science lead to breakthroughs in innovation. hopes of laying the groundwork for under - U and Technology.” “You can’t let talented young scien - standing what biochemical reactions drive That may be true, but these statistics tists go unfunded for five to eight years. sleep and exhaustion in living organisms, are, in a sense, “historical,” replies They will end up washing out of the and what molecular processes are restored Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D., director of the system. You are basically burning up by the act of sleeping. Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology. talent that took many years to develop. In This kind of research, McKnight says, “This (report) reflects that you’ve the Midwest,” says Dixon, who formerly might not be “sexy,” but it may be got people who have been around a long taught at Purdue, Indiana University and extremely important. time … who are in the prime of their the University of Michigan, “we call that Zerhouni also implemented the careers and well supported for a long time ‘eating your seed corn.’” Young Innovators Award, based on the and are doing a great job,” Marnett says. Inadequate funding squelches creativ - concept that the NIH should expand “Looking at the future, it’s very clear to ity, especially for young investigators, beyond its standard policy to promote me that we can’t even judge how many … Lawson continues. higher-risk research projects. young people are turned off on the whole “When we put a grant in, one of our notion of going into science.” biggest criticisms is ‘you are being too Survival of the fittest? There may be, as yet, few signs of ambitious’ or ‘you’re being too creative,’” Marnett calls the NIH the “the crown calamity in the research lab, but there he says. “This isn’t just a matter of losing jewel” of the U.S. government in terms of certainly are no lack of voices sounding people. We run the risk of stifling or its effectiveness. Adds his colleague, Mark the alarm. slowing down our discoveries because Magnuson, M.D., who directs the “It’s very discouraging to hear that investigators are being told to avoid Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology, many of our best young scientists are 41 riskier ideas and pursue more predictable it’s “probably the most successful agency or 43 years old when they receive their avenues with their research. Essentially, at that the United States government ever first grant,” says Douglas Melton, Ph.D., times we have been told that, ‘You need to created in terms of its impact and how co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell back off. You need to make this a safe well it spends money.” Institute who is searching for a cure for research plan.’” And yet because its purchasing power type 1 diabetes. “It’s just unreasonable for Despite its limitations, the NIH has has dropped by 13 percent due to inflation society to expect that people would devote tried mightily to support innovative since 2003, the NIH is less able to do 10 to 15 years to their education and then research. what it used to do so well. The scarcity of not be given real independence until they In 2004, under then-NIH Director funding is particularly troublesome for were in their 40s.” Elias Zerhouni, M.D., it launched the young scientists. “For young people, these are the most Pioneer Awards – $500,000, five-year grants “It’s been said that in the past we productive, innovative and exciting times to selected recipients, which gave them the raised physician-scientists like guppies
14 LENS/WINTER 2009 I L L M B E H A W H O L R H O F H E O C S J R R E A T T E E F S L E U R A P E H T N I Y R A N A C
Jack Dixon, Ph.D., HHMI’s chief scientific Vanderbilt’s Mark Magnuson, M.D., says officer, warns against “burning up talent.” NIH is the “most successful agency.”
where you gave birth to thousands of and Employing America for a Brighter infused lifeblood into American science – them and a few survived,” says Nancy Economic Future,” was submitted to in 2008, for instance, the Nobel Prize Brown, M.D., chief of the Division of Congress five months later. It called for, for Chemistry went to Chinese-American Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt. among other things, recruiting 10,000 Roger Tsien, Ph.D., and the Nobel Prize n
“But when you have limited science and math teachers each year, for Physics to Japanese-American Yoichiro u resources, it’s harder for those guppies to encouraging young people to earn college Nambu, D.Sc. – the report questioned g e
survive,” Brown says. “There are more degrees in science by providing scholar - the wisdom of rewarding brilliance in h predators. What we really need is a model ships, and increasing federal investment the laboratory by sending scientists back t r
like raising mammals, where you nurture in long-term basic research. to their home countries, many of which e d
people along.” “The most important barrier that don’t have the resources to support high- n It’s an apt analogy. Not only is the next must be surmounted is the poor science level research. U generation of scientists at risk, but so is the knowledge of the teachers who are respon - “There are lots of ways that we in the next generation of their ideas – and the sible for teaching science to our students,” United States are shooting ourselves in the potential breakthroughs that could result. says Roy Vagelos, M.D., retired chairman foot,” says Bruce Alberts, Ph.D., professor “What the lack of funding always and CEO of Merck & Co. who served on of biochemistry and biophysics at the does in any ecosystem is halt innovation,” the committee that produced the report. University of California, San Francisco, argues Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., dean of “Many of the secondary school teachers and past president of the National the Vanderbilt University School of of biology, physics and chemistry have Academy of Sciences. Medicine and associate vice chancellor for not majored in those subjects; some have Health Affairs. never had a major course in the subject 30 to 1 return “If the NIH isn’t funding the less inno - they are teaching,” says Vagelos, a mem - Why does it seem so hard to make a vative sciences, the universities can, but ber of the board of the National Math and case for investing in biomedical science? they can only do that for so long because Science Initiative. “The same can be said After all, notes John Oates, M.D., there’s only so much money,” Balser says. for all of the sciences.” founding director of Vanderbilt’s Division “At the end of the day, the impact of a The report led to passage in 2007 of Clinical Pharmacology, thanks to basic declining NIH budget is less money for of the America COMPETES Act, which biomedical research, rheumatic heart dis - pursuing highly innovative ideas.” among other things would increase ease “almost doesn’t exist in the United In May 2005, U.S. Senators Lamar recruitment and scholarship funding for States today because of antibiotics.” The Alexander (R-Tennessee) and Jeff future K-12 science and math teachers, iron lung, which enabled victims of polio Bingaman, (D-New Mexico), asked the advance the knowledge base of existing to breathe, has been retired. National Academies, which include the teachers through continuing education Among the most dramatic success National Academy of Sciences, the programs, and provide more science and stories is the treatment of cardiovascular National Academy of Engineering, and research opportunities to middle and high disease, which, in the past 20 years, has the Institute of Medicine, to assess the school students. As yet, however, the law reduced the annual heart disease death rate nation’s “ability to compete and prosper in has not been fully funded. by 600,000 – and all for a research invest - the 21st century.” Another challenge to the nation’s ment of $30 per American, Hamm says. In response, the academies formed a research enterprise cited in the 2005 Writing in the 2003 book, blue-ribbon committee of experts in a wide report: visa laws that restrict foreign-born, “Measuring the gains from medical range of fields, from engineering to genetics. American-trained scientists from taking research,” Harvard economics professor The committee’s report, “Rising jobs in the United States. David Cutler, Ph.D., and graduate student Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing Given that immigrants have long Srikanth Kadiyala estimated a 30 to 1
LENS/WINTER 2009 15 B A L L L H E C W O R H
A Vanderbilt’s Nancy Brown, M.D., says E E
O scientists must tell their story better. S J E R E H T N I Y R A N A C
return on that investment. “Our unam - They are characterized by years and The project, completed in 2003, didn’t biguous conclusion is that medical years of painstakingly derived results, before give scientists any answers to cancer or research on cardiovascular disease is clearly progress begins to accelerate, eventually diabetes or birth defects – but it did offer worth the cost,” they concluded. leading to leaps in knowledge, and finally them high-resolution navigation tools and n
u New cancer diagnoses and cancer into life-saving treatments and cures. Plus, clues for where they should begin looking. g death rates also have fallen in recent they are often difficult to instantly visualize. Such a sell would be more difficult e
h years. However, the collection of diseases It’s much easier to spot innovative technolo - today, scientists admit, given the current t known as cancer still kills 560,000 gy in cars, computers and cell phones. state of the economy and the equally r e Americans annually, and there are increas - For example, the life scientists urgent challenges facing the nation’s d
n ing calls for revamping the entire research deliberately stayed in the background health care delivery system. “In the pub - U enterprise in order to achieve faster while the physical scientists initially – lic’s mind, they see that we’re 40th in progress against them. and successfully – pitched the National health or wherever we are nationally,” This issue was raised last May during Nanotechnology Initiative to Congress as Brown says. “I think the public conflates the annual Forum on Science and a potential boon to the microelectronics the mission of the NIH with other social Technology Policy in Washington, D.C., industry, “because, ” says Cyrus Mody, issues and other health outcome issues organized by the American Association for Ph.D., an assistant professor at Rice that we need to fix as well. the Advancement of Science. University who teaches about the history “We need to be very specific about the As quoted by Chemical and Engineering of innovation and technology, “that’s an positive outcomes of NIH dollars because News, Christopher Hill, Ph.D., professor industry where talk about competitiveness they’re so far downstream with health out - of public policy and technology at George is always on the table.” comes and they may not understand that Mason University, said the public’s inabilit y The Human Genome Project similarly there are many steps in between.” to understand what scientists are doing an d required a hard sell by scientists and a “Honestly, if we don’t talk about a growing frustration with the “failure” of multi-billion dollar leap of faith by the what we’re doing, and if we don’t sell science and technology to solve the world’s government. Many politicians and acade - what we’re doing and point out the bene - major problems will “make the public less micians had doubts about the rationale for fits that accrue from it, we have nobody to likely to remain convinced that expendi - such a costly venture. Originally proposed blame but ourselves,” adds Ellen Wright tures on science and technology are an as a way to study mutations caused by Clayton, M.D., J.D., who directs the unalloyed good thing.” nuclear exposures, then cancer, and later Vanderbilt Center for Biomedical Ethics That frustration may result in genetic diseases, the Human Genome and Society. a shifting of funds to “problem-solving Project called upon a swarm of researchers “We exist at the sufferance of the research,” Hill predicted. from various disciplines to create a genetic people, and so we’re accountable to them One reason basic biomedical research map of the human chromosomes, identify - and we just have to tell the story,” Clayton is such a hard sell is that innovations may ing all the 20,000 to 25,000 genes in says. “It’s a great story. But that’s what we take many years to come to fruition. human DNA. have to tell them.” LENS
Lisa A. DuBois and Nicole Garbarini One reason why legislators and the contributed to this story public are not up in arms insisting upon robust support of biomedical science is because innovations in this area take many years to come to fruition.
16 LENS/WINTER 2009 E C N E I C S
It’s not all T U O
BY BILL SNYDER B about science A L L A T O
Bill Stead, M.D., does a lot of think - “We did take on high performance Through an ambitious exercise called N
ing about connections. computing as a challenge a number “Vision 2020,” Vanderbilt hopes to develop S ’
As director of Vanderbilt University of years ago. We did take on the such a model – one that transforms clini - T I Medical Center’s Informatics Center, he’s human genome. (But) I’m not aware cal practice and professional education in charge of managing an information that we’ve done anything since then th rough the rapid and efficient applicatio n technology infrastructure that supports that has been taken on as a national of fundamental discoveries. Vanderbilt’s patient care, research and grand challenge. “We’ve now got 40 years of people educational programs. “It’s not all about science. I believe trying to fix this (health care) system As chairman of the Vanderbilt Center it’s a much broader cultural problem. from the outside,” Stead says. “I think for Better Health, he also oversees “We should each feel responsible for we’ve actually got to fix this system from efforts designed to help transform the the fact that (last fall) our children (were) the inside.” nation’s health care system and sitting in gas lines a generation after we There is concern that such targeted, accelerate improvements in health did. And we’ve done nothing about it.” “translational” research diverts funds care outcomes. In health care, “historically we’ve from basic research that can lead to n
But although he describes himself as been superb in discovering new things,” paradigm-shifting discoveries. u an optimist, Stead worries that the United Stead continues. Yet Vanderbilt, for exam - Stead believes they are not mutually g e
States is “drifting toward … a whole ple, is located in a state that has among exclusive. In fact, he says, “we’ve got to h series of national-scale crises,” not only the nation’s worst health indicators in come up with new approaches for sup - t r in health care, but in education, infra - such areas as obesity, diabetes and low porting fundamental research.” e d structure, energy and the environ ment. birth weight. “What would have happened if we’d n
“We’ve now had a decade of one “Producing the best science and pro - had the emergence of HIV in the ‘80s, U bubble after another,” he explains. viding the best service isn’t enough,” he and we hadn’t had the previous 20 years “We’re getting people who are experts at argues. “How do we actually get the ben - of basic virology research? Look at how making money out of chaos … (but) I efit in terms of health in society? What is fast we grabbed that.” think as a society we’ve really lost our the transformative model that generates In today’s world, the Internet has ability to do anything important. a major difference in results?” become as important a driver of commu - nication and collaboration as was the L L
E printing press nearly six centuries ago. W
O Yet Stead worries that many Americans H
E are “coming out of school with extraordi - O J narily limited skills.” And while it is true that the United States can benefit from lessons learned elsewhere, “I don’t think we can depend on other countries to give our people the skills to solve problems,” he says. “We need to be working on the ideas we think are most important for the prob - lems we have,” Stead says. “We need to be doing things to get other people to work on those problems … (to) create the connections between the problems and the ideas … in a way that make light
bulbs go off.” LENS
Bill Stead, M.D., leads a discussion in the Vanderbilt Innovation Center. The “scribing” on the white board was drawn by the center’s production manager, Kelly Adams.
LENS/WINTER 2009 17 T S I T N E I C S : M A S E L C N U n u g e h t r e d n U
18 LENS/WINTER 2009 Z O
BY LEIGH MACMILLAN W
ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE CUTLER E N
E H T
The new n u g
e h t
r e d
U.S. scientists follow yellow n brick roads overseas U
In a southern corner of Singapore , there is a get a budget that included cuts,” Copeland says. “That’s not biomedical research metropolis – fittingly named Biopolis – a way to run anything.” that wasn’t there 10 years ago. Science magazine dubbed the In Singapore – an island nation the size of Chicago – complex a “scientific Emerald City,” conjuring images of the Copeland and Jenkins found a place where biomedical sparkling city in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Biopolis resezarch is buzzing. The government has a vision, and the appears to offer that same sense of promise. Scientists from funding to back it, for vaulting Singapore into the upper around the globe are following the yellow brick road to echelon of biomedical research performers in one generation. Singapore, where they are finding modern research space, R&D spending as a share of the economy (relative to excellent shared resources and secure funding. gross domestic product, GDP) is expected to reach 3 per - Neal Copeland, Ph.D., laughs at the Emerald City cent by 2010 (the United States spent 2.57 percent of its image. “That might be a little strong,” he says, “but it’s GDP on R&D in 2006). certainly a beautiful place to work.” “Singapore is building and growing (its research enter - Copeland directs the Institute of Molecular and Cell prise), while the United States is flat or headed down,” Biology – one of Singapore’s research institutes, similar to Copeland says. the National Institutes of Health in the United States. He One component of the government’s vision is Biopolis – and his wife and research partner Nancy Jenkins, Ph.D., a complex of (so far) nine modern buildings interlinked by moved their program to Biopolis in 2006, after 22 years at sky bridges. The buildings, with names like Centros, the National Cancer Institute. Genome, Matrix and Proteos, house the biomedical research What lured them away? institutes of the Agency of Science, Technology, and It was a number of things, Copeland says, perhaps Research (A*STAR) – the Singaporean equivalent to the chief among them the growing frustration of dealing with intramural NIH campus – alongside research labs of the government bureaucracy at the NCI. pharmaceutical and biotech companies. “It seemed to be getting worse every year,” he says. Built in two phases since 2003, Biopolis now boasts And added to that were the uncertainties of the annual more than 2 million square feet of research space and budget cycle. amenities like food outlets, retail shops, and exercise and “We had an operating budget that didn’t mean anythin g, childcare facilities. and all of a sudden – six months into the fiscal year – we’d
LENS/WINTER 2009 19 Z O
W E N
E H T
s of early 2007, Singapore had spent Jeffrey Conn, Ph.D., the Lee E. about $1.3 billion building and staffing Biopolis, which is Limbird Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Program in part of a master plan for a 500-acre science and technology Drug Discovery, notes that the best development that will include shops and homes. graduate student he’s had since he joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2003 intends to “It’s beautiful infrastructure,” Biology, “about 50 different nationalities return to his native China to pursue Copeland says. “It’s really quite amazing (are) represented.” academic research. what they’ve done in such a short period Eighty to 90 percent of the leadership “That was unheard of 15 years ago,” of time.” of the various A*STAR institutes is foreign Conn says. “Students and scientists would To jumpstart its ascendance as a bio - born, Copeland estimates. But the govern - come here with a desire to stay – now the medical research power, Singapore knew ment has programs in place to increase the best come with a desire to go back (to that it would need to import scientific number of Singaporeans in the leadership their home countries). It’s anecdotal, but talent. It has been wildly successful in its ranks and to move the overall mix of insti - it’s so pervasive that everyone sees it in recruiting efforts. Along with Copeland tute researchers closer to a 50-50 balance. their own students and experience.” n and Jenkins, other prominent transplants It is paying the way for about 1,000
u Lin Mei, M.D., Ph.D., agrees. Mei is
g include Edison Liu, M.D., former director students to earn Ph.D. degrees at foreign a program chief in the Medical College of e of the NCI’s Division of Clinical Sciences; h universities by 2015, with the require - Georgia’s Institute of Molecular Medicine t
Jackie Ying, Ph.D., formerly of MIT; ment that they return to Biopolis for five and Genetics who has watched students r
e Alan Colman, Ph.D., who ran the Roslin years of postdoctoral training. The govern - and research fellows return to China. d
n Institute where Dolly the sheep was ment hopes that half or more will stay on. Two of his recent postdoctoral fel -
U cloned; Edward Holmes, M.D., former lows, both of whom had published papers dean of the School of Medicine at the American brain drain in the high-profile journals Neuron and University of California, San Diego; and In the last century, many research Nature Neuroscience , have taken positions Judith Swain, M.D., former dean for roads blazed a one-way path toward the in China – one at the Institute of Translational Medicine at UCSD. United States. Increasingly, they now offer Neuroscience in Shanghai that Mei helped “They’re trying to do in 10 years more attractive passage in other directions. found, and the other at one of China’s top what other places would take 25 years or Along with top U.S. scientists head - five universities. more to do,” Copeland says. (San Diego’s ing to other lands like Singapore – an It’s a sign of the times, Mei says. transformation into a biomedical research “American brain drain,” writes leading “China is becoming an exciting place to hub took 40 years.) innovation expert John Kao in do research. When I was a master’s stu - “It’s a very international place,” he “Innovation Nation” – foreign students dent in China (23 years ago), the research says. Among the 450 or so researchers in and scientists who come to U.S. shores are opportunities were very limited; there was the Institute of Molecular and Cell more apt to leave. not much you could do. Nowadays, the
Shares of Total World Total World R&D = $962 billion* R&D, 2007 US $344 Sources: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) R&D Budget Policy Program; Organization GERMANY $67 for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), FRANCE $41 Main Science and Technology Indicators, 2008. Data: 2007 or latest year available. UK $36
World = OECD members plus Argentina, China, OTHER EU $99 Romania, Israel, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South JAPAN $138 Africa and Taiwan. KOREA $36 * -- calculated in U.S. dollars using purchasing CHINA $87 power parities. ALL OTHER $114 AUGUST ‘08 © 2008 AAAS
20 LENS/WINTER 2009 Z O . E
D
At right, Neal Copeland, Ph.D., C . N H W in Biopolis, and, far right, Lin A P I
E L Mei, M.D., Ph.D. , L N D A N
A H E L C E R H P A T O E C S
E L R A
E A N I
G Y R S O E E T G R government is investing lots of money , U L O L in research.” C E
In 2006, China announced plans to W O H nearly double its R&D spending as a Y L
proportion of GDP within 15 years; the L I proportion – 2.5 percent – will be similar B to that of the United States. Expenditures will grow from $30 billion in 2005 to Competitiveness wrote in its 2007 report, annually. The United States – the country $112 billion in 2020. (The United States “Competitiveness Index: Where America with the world’s largest economy – comes currently spends about $300 billion.) Stands,” that “with only 5 percent of the in eighth, part of what Kao calls a “second Also troubling are the foreign-born world’s population, America employs tier” for R&D spending. students who are no longer coming to the nearly one-third of the world’s science and The trend in scientific papers pub - United States in the first place. engineering researchers, accounts for 40 lished follows the same pattern. While the U.S. graduate school applications percent of global research and develop - United States published 29 percent of the from foreign students fell 28 percent in ment spending, and publishes 30 percent world’s science and engineering papers in n
2004, and dropped another 5 percent in of all scientific articles.” 2005 – more than any other country – u g
2005, Kao writes. Among the reasons: But, says Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., that percentage represented a drop from e attractive graduate programs all over the director of Vanderbilt’s Mass Spectrometry 34 percent in 1995. The average annual h t world – often at lower cost compared to Research Center, “these numbers are increase in papers published by researchers r
American programs – and greater difficul - where we are now. That’s not what we’re in the United States was only 0.6 percent e d ties in obtaining student visas. interested in. Where are we going to be? over those 10 years. n More restrictive post-9/11 immigra - “We’re going to have to do better, not During the same time period, China U tion policies are making it difficult to just stay the same. We’re in a very compet - and South Korea’s outputs of scientific attract not just students and trainees, but itive world. This business of ‘Oh, we’re not articles increased at annual rates of 16.5 also foreign-born scientists. doing too badly’ is kind of what the cap - percent and 15.7 percent, respectively. In the 1990s, 195,000 H-1B visas tain of the Titanic thought: ‘Gee, so far we Together, the flat funding of research (valid for up to six years) were available haven’t hit an iceberg. We’re OK.’” in the United States, failure to attract and annually for people with technical skills And even though the United States retain scientists, and modest performance in and an employment sponsor. That number does indeed sit at the number one position scientific publishing signal that now is not dropped to 65,000 in 2003. For fiscal year in rankings of countries by dollars spent the time for America to rest on its laurels. 2008, the limit of H-1B visas was reached on R&D and number of scientific papers The United States needs to “recog - on the first day that applications were published, the trends tell a different story. nize the seriousness of the situation,” accepted, according to “Science and Over the last 40 years, the United wrote William Haseltine, Ph.D., chair - Engineering Indicators 2008,” published States has been shifting research and man of Haseltine Global Health and by the National Science Board. development spending to the private secto r. founder and former CEO of Human “The United States has been at the cut - In the 1960s, U.S. government dollars Genome Sciences, in the October 2007 ting edge of science for the past 100 years,” funded about two-thirds of the country’s issue of Discover magazine. says Mei. “One driving force for America’s total R&D spending. By 2006, the gov - “We have not yet killed the goose global position has been an influx of highly ernment’s share had shrunk to just 28 that lays the golden eggs of science and talented immigrants. If foreign students and percent. Even though the private sector technology, but we have placed it on a postdocs are not encouraged to come, if has stepped up to keep the United States starvation diet.” there is no effort to keep them, I see a huge spending about 2.5 percent of GDP on What America needs, Kao argues, is a problem in the future. R&D, these resources “are directed more national innovation agenda. “How can the United States stay at toward applied rather than innovation- There’s no wizard to show us the way. the cutting edge?” generating basic research,” Kao writes. But with coordinated efforts, we can boost China and South Korea, by contrast, our research and development funding, View from the Titanic are upping their government R&D spend - grow our own talent pool through Competition for the global talent ing by 10 percent or more per year. improved science education, and create pool isn’t threatening the United States’ In terms of R&D spending as a share our own “Emerald Cities” of discovery preeminence in biomedical research. Yet. of GDP, America trails Israel, Sweden, that attract and retain the world’s most By many measures, America is Finland, and Japan, a group of countries talented researchers. LENS on top of its game. The Council on that spend more than 3 percent of GDP
LENS/WINTER 2009 21 T S I T N E I C S
: M A S
E L C N U n u g
e h t
r e d n U
22 LENS/WINTER 2009 P A E L
M U T N A U
One of the great Q
A
: transformational D E D E moments in E biomedical science N is happening right now.
It’s the shift from gene to cell.
“I think what we’re seeing in this century now is a n u g renewed appreciation for not DNA … but cells as being e the secret to life,” says Harvard stem cell researcher h t
Douglas Melton, Ph.D. “We’ll see what I might call a r e more synthetic biology, using information obtained d n from DNA to think about how cells work, about physi - U ology and how our bodies work.” Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., who directs Vanderbilt’s Mass Spectrometry Research Center, thinks a lot about the cell, too. But for him, it’s metaphorical. “I don’t think we as scientists are really going to make huge innovations in understanding until we inte - grate just like the cell does,” Caprioli says. Some of U.S. science today is “too highly focused,” he says. “We all have our own expertise, jargon and acronyms generally not understood by non-experts in a particular field. We need to work much closer together to achieve a quantum leap from where we are.” This transformation must include the entire scien - tific enterprise, Caprioli asserts, from the university research lab to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and even to industry. Lens magazine asked Caprioli and other scientists at Vanderbilt and throughout the country to brainstorm ideas for revitalizing the nation’s biomedical research enterprise. Their suggestions may surprise you.
BY BILL SNYDER ILLUSTRATION BY ANTONELLO SILVERINI
LENS/WINTER 2009 23 P
A + E while actually lengthening the time to pharmaceutical companies, he continues, L
Stop yo-yo funding reach a destination, Masys says. “I think we increase the productivity of
M Continued support of the NIH is the companies that rely on (that) science U + T essential, but simply increasing its budget … and then we increase the support of the N will not solve the problems facing U.S. Partner with industry public. The reason that we’re having such A
U science. What’s needed instead is stable Academic medical centers also need to a crisis right now with public support is Q
funding, a budget that does not wobble be innovative in their acquisition and use of that they see this investment, and they’re A
up and down in response to the vagaries of research dollars, Vanderbilt scientists say. looking for what’s coming out of it.” : the political system. One of the reasons that Vanderbilt D
E “The budget of the NIH should not University Medical Center has had a + D suc cessful research enterprise is that it Diversify research support E be an annual legislated amount of money,”
E argues Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., dean of has invested in “elements of 21st century Innovation also must extend to the N the Vanderbilt University School of success,” Masys continues. These include pursuit of a diverse portfolio of research Medicine and associate vice chancellor for infor mation technology and other systems support. Health Affairs. Instead, it should have a approaches aimed at squeezing waste and Toward that end, VUMC has created a “fixed adjusted-for-inflation increase over inefficiency out of its delivery of health care, program focused on helping investigators a 10-or-so-year period like many programs while improving quality and outcomes. find the support that they need. Many of in government.” “It’s vision; it’s core facilities; it’s a lot these foundations “have a strong interest in If the National Cancer Institute, for of different strategic moves we’ve made developing the careers of junior faculty example, “knew what its budget was over the years,” adds Mark Magnuson, members, coupled with a mission to fund going to be five years from now, imagine M.D., who directs the Vanderbilt Center basic, translational and clinical research,” how effective and efficient they could be for Stem Cell Biology. says Vanderbilt’s director of Development in planning programs,” he says. Another avenue of innovation can be for Biomedical Research, Julie Koh, Ph.D. Yo-yo’ing funding is not only a prob - found in collaborations with industry. For example, the Howard Hughes n
u lem for NIH, it can be crushing to the “We’re in the place in our biomedical Medical Institute (HHMI) recently created g
individual investigator, and it ends up wast - research history and the history of the 70 Early Career Scientist positions as an e
h ing tax dollars, adds Scott Hiebert, Ph.D., pharmaceutical industry especially where investment for the future. The institute t
associate director for basic science programs companies are desperate for new models also is granting new funds through its r e at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. and opportunities to invest,” says Jeffrey newly established Collaborative Innovator d
n “The vast majority of researchers Conn, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Award project. Here the principal investi - U across the country have one or two grants, Program in Drug Discovery. gator (PI) must be an HHMI researcher, and when their grant doesn’t get renewed Drug companies are reluctant to invest but the research team must include others for two cycles the research stops, and then in university-based research “for the sake of from outside his or her discipline, from it gets funded and they have nobody in research,” Conn says, “but when they see outside the institute or even from outside the lab to do it,” Hiebert says. research that can impact the company’s the United States. “It takes a couple of years to get viability, those opportunities are there.” Says Jack Dixon, Ph.D., HHMI’s going. And we’re doing this and it’s An example is Vanderbilt’s partner - chief scientific officer and former dean for killing us. We’re wasting tax dollars doing ship with the Boston-based biotech firm Scientific Affairs at the University of this because we’re losing the momentum.” Seaside Therapeutics to find potential California, San Diego: “The strategy is to “This thing of going up a lot and treatments for fragile X syndrome, the develop teams of people to tackle impor - then going down a lot is just devastating most common inherited form of mental tant problems that couldn’t be tackled as to the continuity of laboratories (that) are retardation and the most common genetic effectively by an individual laboratory. It’s trying to … make a breakthrough,” agrees cause of autism. The goal is to reduce or something of an experiment for us.” Heidi Hamm, Ph.D., chair of Vanderbilt’s eliminate the neurological and psychiatric Grassroots movements like ACT-UP, Department of Pharmacology. “You lose consequences of the condition by chemi - which promotes AIDS research, and pri - trained people in your laboratory. You cally modulating the aberrant signaling of vate foundations like the Michael J. Fox start all over. It’s a wasteful system.” a neurotransmitter in the brain. Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Funding a program is not unlike “If it works, it could be transforma - which supports research and drug flying a plane, adds Dan Masys, M.D., tive,” says Conn, who led the neuroscience development, are among the increasingly chair of Biomedical Informatics at program at Merck for several years. “It powerful funders of biomedical research. Vanderbilt and a licensed pilot. could totally change the way people view The recently formed Stand Up to Repeatedly climbing and descending developmental disorders.” Cancer, which raised more than $100 instead of keeping to a steady altitude can As academic medical centers do a bet - million during a televised celebrity increase fuel consumption by 60 percent ter job matching their needs with those of fundraising event last fall, directs its donations to “interdisciplinary, multi- institutional translational and clinical + Yo-yo’ing funding of research research Dream Teams” in order to speed progress and “achieve a paradigm shift in can be crushing to investigators clinical cancer research,” according to its Web site, www.standup2cancer.org. and ends up wasting tax dollars. Similarly, the Multiple Myeloma
24 LENS/WINTER 2009 P A E
Vanderbilt L
researchers M U T
brainstorm N A
ideas U Q
In October 2008, Lens magazine assembled two groups of researchers A
at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to examine the challenges fac - :
ing U.S. biomedical research, and to suggest possible solutions. This D special issue of Lens emerged from discussions with members of the E Lens editorial board, particularly Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N., Lawrence D Marnett, Ph.D., Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., Randy Blakely, Ph.D., Joel Lee, E E
associate vice chancellor for Medical Center Communications, and for - N mer Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Lee Limbird, Ph.D. Wonder Drake, M.D. assistant professor of Medicine n u g
e h t
r
Richard Caprioli, Ph.D. Julie Koh, Ph.D. e director, Mass Spectrometry Research Center director of Development for Biomedical Research d n U
Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N. Dan Masys, M.D. Institute for Medicine and Public Health chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Jeffrey Conn, Ph.D. Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D. Scott Hiebert, Ph.D. director, Program in Drug Discovery director, Institute of Chemical Biology professor of Biochemistry
LENS/WINTER 2009 25 P A
E Research Foundation has used a “pay-for- technologies that may fall apart or become That’s why an increasing number of L
results” funding model that, in the words of obsolete in a few years. But if we don’t scientists and universities around the
M Time Magazine’s Bill Saporito, “has more to take that risk, others won’t.” country are partnering with public schools U
T do with Silicon Valley than Big Pharma.” The foundation is currently funding to bring more of the joy and excitement N Foundations also can provide “sup - clinical trials of several novel therapeutic of discovery into the classroom. VUMC, A
U port for controversial or unpopular topics approaches to Parkinson’s disease that oth - for example, has provided summer science Q
where government is reluctant to tread, erwise would likely not yet have advanced workshops for teachers for more than a A
and nurturing of ideas early in their to testing in patients. decade. : inception prior to broader acceptance,” “When the foundation was launched “These science teachers out there are D
E said Susan Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., vice presi - in 2000, we didn’t necessarily anticipate highly motivated. They just need … D dent of the St. Louis-based James S. that we would have to go this far before access to mentoring from us,” Balser says. E
E McDonnell Foundation. someone else would take the lead,” Fiske “And so creating a really direct linkage N “Having a large number of funding says. “But we can’t stand by as potentially between the science teachers in this com - organizations with diverse decision-makers promising drugs sit on the shelf and never munity and university faculty so that helps ensure flourishing of alternative mod - go to definitive clinical trials, and no one we’re all part of a community, and we’re els and approaches that may depart from the ever knows if they will work or not.” all engaged in this together – that’s really common wisdom or challenge the status Private efforts, however, do not come where the solution lies.” quo,” Fitzpatrick said in remarks prepared close to matching the $28-billion-a-year Individual faculty members and stu - for a forum on science and technology policy NIH “engine” that drives the nation’s dents from Vanderbilt also are investing hosted by the American Association for the biomedical discovery enterprise. Notes their time and talents to help capture the Advancement of Science last May. Conn: “I think the entire system would imagination and talent of public school “Driving cures requires investing in implode if you didn’t have that strong students. high-risk science,” adds Brian Fiske, national investment.” Last year, for example, Vanderbilt Ph.D., an associate director of research pro - Student Volunteers in Science n + u grams at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, (www.vanderbilt.edu/vsvs), a 15-year-old g
which committed more than $30 million Invest in education organization of undergraduate, graduate e
h in new Parkinson’s disease research in Nurturing the spirit of discovery and medical students, brought hands-on t
2008. “It’s all about testing hypotheses ultimately must begin with the next science lessons to more than 120 middle r e that may very well fail, and betting on generation. school classrooms in Nashville. d
n In 2007, Billy Hudson, Ph.D., direc - U + “BIG SCIENCE” IN THE BALANCE tor of the Vanderbilt Center for Matrix Biology, launched the “Aspirnaut While the federal government funds the lion’s share of biomedical research Initiative” (www.aspirnaut.org) to provide in the United States, there is concern that a predilection for “big science” proj - laptop computers to middle and high ects may actually weaken rather than strengthen the potential for discovery. school students in rural Arkansas, where “I agree that we need better integrated science, but not the type of ‘big he grew up, so they can access accelerated science’ that we’ve seen from NIH in the past decade,” says Lawrence math and science programs during long Marnett, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology. “The bus rides to and from school. Genome Project was a big science project that has paid dividends and will pay Wonder Drake, M.D., assistant pro - dividends over the long run, but many of the other projects that came about in fessor of Medicine, brings young people the afterglow of its success are poor shadows. from her church into her lab for summer “What we need is more communication between people doing complemen - research experiences. Some of them are at tary work so that they focus on critical common goals with a percentage of risk of being turned off by school. But the their efforts,” Marnett says. lab experience challenges them. “There is no one solution and definitely, in my humble view, ‘big science’ “We mentored 10 kids over a five-year is not THE answer,” agrees Randy Blakely, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt period in my lab, and six of (them) are in Center for Molecular Neuroscience. “Big science … can become totalitarian, graduate school right now, either an M.D., wasteful and misguided, just like any large enterprise when it is seen as the Ph.D., or M.D./Ph.D. program,” she says. only way to go. “One reason for their success is that they “Nothing in my view will beat the creativity of individuals empowered with found translational research very exciting; sufficient resources to explore biology and medicine’s problems.” it provided them an opportunity to see how In his 2007 book, “Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical stimulating the life of a scientist can be.” Breakthroughs,” Morton Meyers, M.D., wrote that many advances in biomed - Improving science education also ical science come not from a “predetermined research path” or from a commit - benefits the broader society, argues Bruce tee, “but from an individual, a maverick who views a problem with fresh eyes.” Alberts, Ph.D., former president of the “Serendipity will strike and be seized upon by a well-trained scientist or cli - National Academy of Sciences and current nician who also dares to rely upon intuition, imagination and creativity,” Meyers editor-in-chief of the journal Science . asserted. “Unbounded by traditional theory, willing to suspend the usual set of “If we made the kind of investments beliefs, unconstrained by the requirement to obtain approval or funding for his in teacher education and teacher support or her pursuits, this outsider will persevere and lead the way to a dazzling that we need to make as a nation, we breakthrough.” – Bill Snyder could create a citizenry that would be
26 LENS/WINTER 2009 P A N E
much more effective in the workforce, O L S because those people would be able to N H M O
solve problems on the assembly line and J U
A in the workplace,” Alberts maintains. T N A N
That’s important, he adds, because in D A order for the United States to thrive U Q
amidst the challenges of the 21st century, A
its citizens “need to be problem-solvers. They need to be independent thinkers. : D
They need to see how to fix things that E are wrong, and then move forward.” D E E
+ N Sell the story Given the global financial crisis, it will not be easy to increase support of research and education. One possible solution: health care reform. Douglas Melton, Ph.D., co-director of the Harvard According to Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., Stem Cell Institute RN, an expert on health care workforce issues in the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health, our nation’s For example, to scientists the word research leading to breakthroughs in our health care delivery system wastes 30 “cloning” means making copies of DNA or understanding of disease,” while n
cents of every dollar – about $700 billion cells. But “to my neighbor it means making Magnuson calls for a presidential cabinet- u g a year. “That’s 20 times the NIH budget,” copies of people, and I don’t know any sci - level position to help guide the nation’s e he points out. entist who wants to do that,” Melton says. science and technology enterprise. h t
“Something we can all agree on is to “Scientists make a grave mistake if For Melton, it’s a matter of “setting r get rid of the waste and inefficiency in the they think people should just know (intu - the tone.” e d delivery system that results in nothing,” itively) about this,” he continues. “We are National politics and policy debates n Buerhaus continues. “It’s not as if we have an important part of society, and it’s our have “devalued” science in recent years, U to create a lot of extra dollars (to support obligation to talk to people about not only says Melton, despite the fact that “science research). It’s just that we need to put some what we do but why we do it.” as a way of knowing has proved to be the discipline into this crazy system that is going Scientists should avoid making extrav - most powerful way of understanding the to get way out of control as we move forward agant claims, like promising a cure for can - great questions of life and, fortunately also with these 80 million Baby Boomers” who cer in a decade. But there is nothing wrong a great economic engine.” are entering their retirement years. with spurring the public’s imagination. “It’s not that I mean we should William Lawson, M.D., assistant pro - “There are two great problems that have experiments going on in the White fessor of Medicine at Vanderbilt who has society faces now, at least as I see the House,” he says. “I’m talking about advocated nationally for more federal fund - world,” says Melton. “One of them is setting the tone … That’s why we have a ing for research, notes that the nation spends ren ewable energy. If I were a young person , central government – to ask what’s impor - between $6,000 and $7,000 per year on I would be fascinated to figure how why tant for our society, how do we solve health care for each of its 300 million citi - chloroplasts in green plants harness energy problems and set a tone that engages zens, but “less than $100 per person” each from the sun so much more efficiently society to help others. year for NIH-sponsored extramural medical than our best solar panels. “That’s what I mean by leadership.” research. “That’s a huge gap,” he says. “The second one, it won’t surprise “What made America great?” asks And while health care reform has been you to hear, is renewable bodies. I think Vanderbilt’s Caprioli. “In the early 1900s, a political “third rail,” electrocuting all who the concept of keeping my body healthy, we launched into the world. Why? What come near, it is equally true that scientists healthy aging, is very interesting and was in our spirit, our culture that allowed have failed to sell the story of biomedical fascinating … The public has a great that meteoric rise? Is there something in research in a clear and consistent manner. appetite to increase their body’s natural our history that can give us a glimpse of “Information is the most important ability to replenish and repair itself.” what our solution should be? thing in clarifying … misimpressions More consistent research funding. “This goes very deep into the fabric and/or wrong-headed thinking about Partnering with industry. Diversified sup - of who we’ve become,” he says. “Who things,” says Harvard’s Melton, who is port. Investing in education. Selling we’ve become is not all good. We have to studying how cells might be repro - scie nce’s story to the public. Good ideas all. understand the parts that are limiting us grammed to cure type 1 diabetes. “If you But there is one more quality that is and get past them.” LENS look in the political arena, it’s usually the essential for keeping biomedical research way words are twisted or there’s seeding high on the nation’s agenda – leadership. Lisa A. DuBois contributed to this story purposefully of misinformation that leads Hamm argues for “a 100-year national people … to the wrong opinion.” strategy for investment in scientific
LENS/WINTER 2009 27 Y R
R Pictured at left: Q-vaughnia Hornbeck O E N T (right) goes over her research with Y A S Virginia Shepherd, Ph.D., director of the R
Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach. E S N ’ Jennifer Ufnar, Ph.D., (not pictured) N T A mentored Hornbeck’s senior project. N E D U T S
E N O
Directed by Glenn McCombs, Ph.D., the school has four full-time, Ph.D.-level instructors. Most of the students spend one day a week at Vanderbilt receiving accelerated classroom instruction and laboratory experience, while still keeping up with their studies in their public schools. The seniors also conduct summer research projects. n
u In the past two years, three of the g
seniors have achieved semifinalist e
h recognition in the prestigious Siemens t (formerly Westinghouse) national science r e
d competition.
n Too often in regular science classes, U One student’s “students … find themselves doing a cookbook kind of lab, and there’s not the story open-ended question and hypothesis- driven kind of project,” says Shepherd, a professor of Pathology and Medicine and By Nicole Garbarini associate professor of Biochemistry. “We’re trying to do that here … Every Tuesday afternoon, Q-vaughnia Hornbeck leaves her public high school To me, that’s the way to build critical early, bound for a laboratory on the Vanderbilt University campus where she is thinkers and problem solvers, and that’s investigating a new way to identify sewage contamination in lakes, rivers and other what I’d love to see in schools” through - recreational waters. out the country. “Everyone wants to know why I leave early,” says Hornbeck, a senior at Whites Shepherd recognizes that high schools Creek Comprehensive High School in Nashville. “They say, ‘You’re so smart!’” and universities have very different cul - Undoubtedly, but Hornbeck says the best part of her experience in the School for tures. But “with a good relationship Science and Math at Vanderbilt is the friendships she’s made with her teachers and between a university or institute of higher fellow students. education and the K-12 system,” she It’s also changed her career choice – from dentistry to neuroscience. insists, “there can be some wonderful “It’s changed everything,” she says confidently. “I like the fact that you have a partnerships built up that can be mutually question and then you can develop ways to answer the question. I also like that you beneficial.” don’t have someone telling you what to do next. You can decide that on your own.” The goal is nothing short of revolu - Hornbeck is one of 10 seniors and 49 underclassmen from Nashville public tionary. schools currently enrolled in the innovative Vanderbilt program. It is the latest effort “What’s the Sputnik of your genera - by Virginia Shepherd, Ph.D., and her colleagues to enhance K-12 science education. tion?” Shepherd challenges the students. In 1994, Shepherd got her first science education grant to fund summer work - Cures for cancers? A vaccine that prevents shops for teachers. That led to a variety of programs, including the Girls and Science AIDS? A solution to the energy crisis? summer camp, the involvement of graduate students in K-12 classrooms and, in 2002, “You want to give something to these establishment of the Center for Science Outreach (www.scienceoutreach.org), which students that they can grab a hold of, so Shepherd directs. they can say, ‘Yeah, I want to be that kind Then, in 2007, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in partnership with of scientist,’” she says. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, launched the School for Science and Math “The challenge is what will excite ((http://theschool.vanderbilt.edu/). students and keep the spark going.” LENS
28 LENS/WINTER 2009 NEWS ABOUT LENS
W INTER p.4 Uncle Sam: Scientist p.18 Follow the yellow brick road By the numbers 09 p .12 Canary in the research lab p .26 Big science in the balance Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Research Enterprise Lens
FACULTY Total number of faculty 1,929 U.S. science: Faculty engaged in sponsored research* 1,032 Under the gun RESEARCH FUNDING NIH funding (2007) $ 282.2 million NIH funding (1999) $ 94.4 million Funding from all external sources (2007) more than $ 389.0 million
A PUBLICATION OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER WWW.MC.VANDERBILT.EDU/LENS FACILITIES Tell us what you think Research space (2007) 678,000 square feet of this issue Research space (1999) 315,000 square feet Research centers and institutes nearly 40 Your opinions are important to us. To continue the discussion, STUDENTS we will post your comments and Medical students 442 letters on the Lens Web site – Residents and clinical fellows about 850 www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/lens – Nursing (includes doctorate and master’s degree programs) 750 and publish some of them in the next issue of the magazine. n Bioscience Ph.D. students about 520 u g
Post-doctoral fellows 474 e Comments, questions and h
Hearing & speech sciences (Ph.D. and M.S.) 88 t
letters can be e-mailed to the
M.D./Ph.D. students 83 r editor at [email protected]; e Other master’s degree programs 115 d
faxed to (615) 343-3890; or n
mailed to: U NOBEL LAUREATES Earl Sutherland Jr., M.D. (1971) – for his discovery of cyclic AMP Bill Snyder Stanley Cohen, Ph.D. (1986) – for his discovery of epidermal growth factor Editor, Lens magazine Vanderbilt University * Faculty members who received research dollars from either grants or contracts Medical Center Figures as of December 2008, except where noted D-3237A, Medical Center North Nashville, TN 37232-2390
2008 Lens Editorial Board
Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D. Ellen Wright Clayton, M.D., J.D. Lee E. Limbird, Ph.D. Anesthesiology, Medicine, Pharmacology Pediatrics, Law Pharmacology Dean, School of Medicine Director Professor of Cardiovascular Biology Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society Meharry Medical College
Gordon R. Bernard, M.D. John H. Exton, M.D., Ph.D. Mark A. Magnuson, M.D. Medicine Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Pharmacology Medicine Director, Center for Stem Cell Biology Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D. William N. Hance, B.A., J.D. Pharmacology Director, Office of News and Public Affairs Lawrence J. Marnett, Ph.D. Director, Center for Molecular Neuroscience Biochemistry, Cancer Research Scott W. Hiebert, Ph.D. Director Peter I. Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N. Biochemistry, Medicine Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology Nursing Associate Director for Basic Science Programs Director, Center for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center John A. Oates, M.D. Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies Medicine, Pharmacology George C. Hill, Ph.D. Richard Caprioli, Ph.D. Microbiology & Immunology Anne Enright Shepherd, M.A. Biochemistry, Chemistry, Pharmacology Associate Dean for Diversity Executive Director of Communications Director, Mass Spectrometry Research Center in Medical Education VUMC Development & Alumni Relations
Joel G. Lee, B.A. Associate Vice Chancellor Medical Center Communications
LENS/WINTER 2009 29 IN THE NEXT ISSUE :
Tsunami of childhood obesity Findings in genetics and molecular biology are yielding new ideas for stemming the tide.
It’s not a zero sum game Development is guided by a synergy of genetic and environmental factors, including nutrition.
The fragile brain Learning how the brain grows may help solve the riddles of autism and learning disorders.
A 2-month-old baby is soothed by his mother at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Photo by Dana Johnson
PRSRT STD Lens U.S. POSTAGE Vanderbilt University PAID VUMC News and Public Affairs NASHVILLE TN D-3237A Medical Center North PERMIT NO. Nashville, TN 37232-2390 777
www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/lens