Spring 2006 Volume Nine / Number One
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SPRING 2006 VOLUME NINE / NUMBER ONE NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 751 SAN DIEGO, CA THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE A PUBLICATION OF THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE Office of Communications—TPC30 ENDEAVOR 10550 North Torrey Pines Road La Jolla, California 92037 www.scripps.edu PUBLISHER: Keith McKeown EDITOR: Mika Ono Benedyk DESIGN: Miriello Grafico PRODUCTION: Miriello Grafico Kevin Fung COVER ILLUSTRATION: Dennis Clouse PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY: Martin Trailer Bruce Hibbs Jamey Stillings PRINTING: Precision Litho © 2006 All material copyrighted by The Scripps Research Institute. “While the last century has been the century of physical sciences, I believe the next century will be the century of biological sciences.” ANDREW VITERBI, PH.D. Scripps Research Supporter THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE Andrew J. Viterbi Looks to the Future ENDEAVOR Inventor, entrepreneur, and Scripps Research trustee Andrew J. Viterbi, Ph.D., has spent half a century capturing and capitalizing on the physical sciences. Best known for the Viterbi Algorithm used in digital communications and other fields and a co-founder VOLUME NINE / NUMBER ONE SPRING 2006 of QUALCOMM, Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of mobile satellite com- munications and digital wireless telephony, Viterbi nonetheless sees biological sciences as the wave of the future. “While the last century has been the century of physical sciences, I believe the next century will be the century of biological sciences,” says Viterbi. 1723 Viterbi’s interest in the biological sciences first led him to Scripps Research as a member of the Scripps Cancer Center Advisory Board. The center is dedicated to FEATURES: ALSO: quickly bringing advanced cancer treatments from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside through breakthrough translational research. Demonstrating his commitment, ANDREW J. VITERBI he and his wife, Erna, made a $2 million gift for state-of-the-art research led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., assistant professor of chemistry at Scripps Research. 02 EXPLORING A NEW GENETIC WORLD: 01 AT THE FOREFRONT “While it’s difficult to bridge the gap between the research laboratory and the clinical environment, translational medicine is critical to effective drug discovery,” CLAES WAHLESTEDT VENTURES BEYOND THE 16 BEHIND THE SCENES says Viterbi. CENTRAL DOGMA A doctoral graduate of the University of Southern California, where the school of engineering was recently named in his honor, Viterbi’s decision to contribute to Scripps Research was influenced by the freedom afforded to scientists to take their laboratory work in the direction that they think is most promising. 06 LOOKING FOR A JOB DESCRIPTION FOR RNA: “I’m very oriented to independent research institutions such as those in private universities,” he said. “Private institutions have more flexibility and control over their JOHN HOGENESCH BRINGS NEW TOOLS TO THE TASK destiny, particularly in the recruitment of scientists—they’re in a better position to con- trol quality and limit bureaucracy.” As a scientist, businessman, and philanthropist, Viterbi believes in basic research. “Basic research will yield tremendous dividends towards the fight against a variety of diseases. The key is getting extremely intelligent people involved and giving them free 10 THE REMAKING OF RNA reign,” he says. But he is equally devoted to advanced technologies, noting, “More and more, the computer is becoming an indispensable tool in medical research.” MARTHA FEDOR CONNECTS FORM AND FUNCTION A Scripps Research trustee since 2004, Viterbi is a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his many honors, he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1978 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. ENDEAVOR IS A PUBLICATION OF THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE Find out how you can receive fixed annual income for life, now or as part of your retirement planning, This issue of Endeavor magazine features investigators working at the forefront of the field of RNA research. Once thought to while also providing a gift to Scripps Research. Please contact Cheryl Dean, at (858) 784-2380 or be a simple stepping stone in the process of translating genetic information from DNA into protein, RNA has turned out to be a [email protected], to learn about joining the many members of the Scripps Legacy Society and far more important player than previously imagined. making the future discoveries of Scripps Research scientists part of your legacy. At the Forefront Scientists Discover “Unprecedented” Functional World Community Grid Targets AIDS in Giant Amyloid Plays Beneficial Role In Human Cells Research Effort A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Insti- IBM and Scripps Research have launched a new effort to tute have shown that the amyloid protein structure, help battle AIDS using the massive computational power which has been linked to diseases of the brain including of the World Community Grid, a global community of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s, carries out Internet users who donate unused time on their personal an important functional role in human physiology. The computers. With computational power already placing discovery raises the possibility that current research it among the top 10 supercomputers in the world, the into curtailing amylolid formation to treat these diseases World Community Grid is the first “virtual supercom- might ultimately do as much harm as good. puter” devoted specifically to AIDS research. Donating “The fact that we have found a structure in humans unused computer time is fast, easy, and secure. For more that is usually only associated with pathology is a critical information on how to participate, go to www.worldcom- 01 new finding,” said Jeffery W. Kelly, Ph.D., whose posi- munitygrid.org. tions at Scripps Research include Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry, member of The Skaggs Institute Scripps Florida Opens Cutting-Edge Screening AT THE FOREFRONT for Chemical Biology, and vice president of academic af- Technology to Florida Scientists fairs. Kelly led the study with Scripps Research Professor Scripps Florida has launched its “Access to Technologies” William E. Balch, Ph.D. program, which invites scientists from Florida univer- REFERENCE: PLoS Biology, 4(1), 10.1371 (2006). sities and other academic research institutions to use state-of-the-art screening technologies at the institute’s Researchers Find Protein Controls Tumor Growth Jupiter facilities for qualifying projects. Access to Scripps in Certain Breast Cancers Florida’s new High Throughput Screening operation, Scientists from Scripps Research and the Xiamen Uni- similar to that used widely by the pharmaceutical indus- versity School of Life Sciences, Fujian, The People’s try, should speed up the process of discovering new drugs Republic of China, have uncovered a new and potentially to treat a variety of human illnesses. important function for a protein previously thought to For more information, go to the Scripps Florida play a role solely in the innate immune system’s response Access to Technologies website at www.scripps.edu/ to bacterial infection. In the study, researchers showed florida/technologies/hts. that the presence of the protein Nod1 strongly inhibits the growth of estrogen-sensitive human breast cancer cells. Small Molecule Generates Neurons from Adult Richard Ulevitch, Ph.D., chair of the Scripps Re- Stem Cells search Department of Immunology, said, “These unex- A group of scientists from Scripps Research and the Salk pected findings offer the first real evidence that this path- Institute for Biological Studies have uncovered a syn- way may regulate tumor growth and suggest a potentially thetic small molecule that generates functional neurons new mechanism for controlling this type of breast cancer.” from adult neural stem cells. The molecule, named neu- REFERENCE: PNAS, 103(6), 1840-1845 (2006). ropathiazol, selectively and potently induces neuronal differentiation of neural stem or progenitor cells. The results of this study, led by Sheng Ding, Ph.D., a Scripps Research investigator, may ultimately help in the development of future small molecule therapeutics. These could stimulate the regeneration of neurons in patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders, such as Al- zheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, or from brain injuries. REFERENCE: Angewandte Chemie, 45(4), 591-593 (2006). “Scientists have been looking for a long time at known disease-causing genes and not finding answers. At least some of the answers may be contained in this new universe of non-coding RNA…” CLAES WAHLESTEDT, M.D., PH.D. 02 Exploring a New Genetic World CLAES WAHLESTEDT VENTURES BEYOND THE CENTRAL DOGMA It is the nature of scientific inquiry that solving one expression made by Wahlestedt, his collaborators, puzzle often leads to many others. Such is the case and others in the field have shaken up a central dog- CLAES WAHLESTEDT with the Human Genome Project, which deciphered ma of biology that holds that the main function of all three billion nucleotides, the basic building blocks RNA is to translate DNA codes into proteins, which of DNA that comprise the totality of human genes. are needed to sustain life. The massive international research effort, begun in While it has been known for some time that not 1990 and completed in 2003, was one of the great all of a cell’s RNA is involved in protein synthesis, feats of scientific exploration and provided the the importance of so-called “non-coding” RNA has ability, for the first time, to read nature’s complete not been well understood or even thought signifi- genetic blueprint for humans. To scientists like Claes cant. Wahlestedt maintains, however, that “non-cod- Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director ing” RNA plays a crucial role—one that will become of Central Nervous System Disorders at The increasingly valued as it is better understood—in the Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus, this processes of expression and repression of hereditary achievement, as astounding as it was, was just the information.