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Founded in 1888 as the Marine Biological Laboratory Catalyst

Fall 2010 Volume 5, Number 2

IN THIS ISSUE

4 Diamond In the Rough

8 Life, Interrupted

10 Bird Strike!

Where Are They Now

MBL People Shaping and Society Page 2 F r o m t h e D i r e c t o r

Dear Friends, MBL Catalyst One of the great pleasures of teaching is hearing good news from former students. For those who have taught at the MBL—whether it was in a summer course, or in Fall 2010 Volume 5, Number 2 our resident undergraduate and graduate programs—alumni news is often very MBL Catalyst is published twice yearly by the Office rewarding. We hear from former undergraduates who are now enrolled in the best of Communications at the MBL in Woods Hole, Ph.D. programs in the country. We hear from post-docs who have published exciting . The Marine Biological Laboratory , and who find the dream of establishing their own lab is within reach. We (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and are delighted to hear from senior who are in leadership positions, or are improving the human condition through research recipients of the highest accolades in science and scholarship, yet who stay in touch and education in , biomedicine, and with their colleagues or mentors at the MBL. . Founded in 1888, the MBL is an independent, nonprofit corporation. This is the scientific family that so much defines the MBL: the successive generations

of teachers and their students, many of whom eventually come back to the MBL to Senior Advisors Director and CEO: Gary Borisy teach. The same bonds of lineage form among our visiting investigators: they often Chief Academic and bring a few lucky students with them to Woods Hole, who then become imbued with Scientific Officer: Joshua Hamilton the MBL “magic” and find a way to return, sometimes as independent researchers Director of External Relations: Pamela Clapp Hinkle themselves. Some of our alumni may come back and deliver one lecture; others return to lead a course, or become MBL trustees. Some of them haven’t yet returned, but we MBL Catalyst Staff look forward to the day they will! Editor-in-Chief: Andrea Early Managing Editor/Senior Writer: Diana Kenney This issue of MBL Catalyst profiles just a few of the extraordinary scientists who Guest Science Editor: Donald Faber have been, or still are, connected to the MBL. They include exceptionally creative Designer: Beth Ready Liles and notable people, such as polymath writer/ (Invertebrate Contributors: Robert Cooke , ’57) and biologist Mark Roth (Embryology, ’80), both of whom are recipients David Gallagher Gina Hebert of MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellowships. Porter Anderson (Microbial Diversity, Sarah Stanley ’89) co-invented a vaccine that has protected millions of children from scourges such Pamela Wilmot as bacterial meningitis. And while Gregory Henkes only recently (2006) completed the MBL Semester in Environmental Science program, he found himself in headline Photography: Inside front cover: MBL Archives (alumni photo), E. Armstrong (Gary Borisy). P. 1: Dreamstime.com (Earth), news stories in 2009, thanks to expertise he gained partly at the MBL. MBL Archives (1980 Embryology class), Courtesy A. Cohen (Adam Cohen teaching in Liberia), Courtesy Jared Diamond, MBL alumni are the leaders in their fields. Dyann Wirth was a young post-doc Dreamstime.com (geese). Pp. 2-3 (counter-clockwise from top): MBL Archives (1957 Invertebrate Zoology class), Courtesy W. looking for her path when she took Biology of Parasitism in 1980. Now she leads Young (Wise Young and patient in 2005), Courtesy Shimere a department at Harvard School of Public Health. Molly Miller Jahn (Microbial Williams, Courtesy Matthew Winkler, Courtesy Justin Widener, Courtesy Adam Cohen, Lauren DuBois (Judy St. Diversity ’81) recently served in a leadership post at the U.S. Department of Leger). Pp. 4-5: MBL Archives (1957 Invertebrate Zoology class), Agriculture, which further expanded her vision of how to apply scientific discoveries Courtesy Jared Diamond, Dreamstime.com (bowerbird). Pp. 6-7: (top left) J. Orfanon, Barbara Harmon (Xenopus for the betterment of our world. illustration), M.A. Alliegro (top right), G. Galford (bottom right). Pp. 8-9: P.C. Miller (Mark Roth), MBL Archives (1980 Embryology The names of some MBL alumni are known the world over, such as . class), Dreamstime.com (bear). Pp. 10-11: Dreamstime. com (birds), K. Foreman (Gregory Henkes), U.S. National In fact, this issue of MBL Catalyst could have turned into a book, and we still would Transportation Safety Board (US Airways plane), T. Kleindinst not have exhausted the pool of fascinating and influential scientists who have ties to (Gregory Henkes as SES student). P. 12: K. Dayton (Dyann Wirth), V. Trakinsky (children and clinicians in Senegal), MBL Archives the MBL. We love to hear from them, and we hope you like reading about where they (1980 Biology of Parasitism class), Dreamstime.com (Anopheles). are now. P. 14: T. Kleindinst (Millicent Bell), E. Armstrong (John W. Rowe and Valerie Rowe), J. Cherry (MBL FIR course), D. Remsen (cuttlefish). P. 15: Courtesy Porter Anderson, Dreamstime. My deep thanks to Donald Faber, chairman of the Department of Neuroscience at com (horseshoe crab). P. 16: W. Hoffmann/University of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who served as guest science editor for this issue Wisconsin-Madison (Molly Miller Jahn), MBL Archives (1981 Microbial Diversity class). P. 17: MBL Archives (Rachel Carson), of MBL Catalyst. Past chairman of the MBL Science Council, and formerly a Grass Dreamstime.com (ocean waves). Back cover: H. Ducklow (Avian Fellow (1969) and Neurobiology course co-director (2000-2003) and instructor Island, Antarctica). (1995-2003), Don is well woven into the MBL family. About the cover: Dreamstime.com (Earth), MBL Archives (1957 Invertebrate Zoology class).

Online extras: For full image descriptions, supplemental materials, and other information related to this issue, visit: www.mbl.edu/catalyst

Send correspondence to: MBL Communications Office Gary Borisy 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543 Director and Chief Executive Officer 508-289-7423, [email protected] I n t h i s I s s u e Catalyst

F e at u r e s

2 Where Are They Now? People who have invested time at the MBL, either as students, faculty, researchers, or trustees, are a formidable group that is shaping science and society in profound ways. In this issue, we catch up with a few of these movers and shakers.

4 Diamond in the Rough Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond, who also has a National Medal of Science to his credit, believes the best course he ever took was at the MBL.

8 Life, Interrupted MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Mark Roth illuminates the study of suspended animation.

10 Bird Strike! Gregory Henkes, a Semester in Environmental Science program graduate, combed through the evidence behind one of the biggest news stories of 2009.

D e pa rt m e n t s

6 News & Notes 15 c o o l T o o l 17 M e m o r a b i l i a The latest findings from our A Life-Saving Test A Gift to the Sea laboratories and field sites. Porter Anderson relied on MBL basic Rachel Carson’s legacy of science (and horseshoe crabs) to began test the purity of his first-generation with a summer at the MBL, where 12 mbl M o m e n t vaccine for childhood diseases. her love for marine emerged. The of a Cure

Dyann Wirth sets her sights on a vaccine 16 S c i e n t i s t ’ s E y e V i e w against the ever-shifting malaria parasite. The Whole Landscape Molly Miller Jahn’s focus on 14 G i f t s & G r a n t s and breeding of crop plants was reaping rewards—and then she looked up. 14 a c c o l a d e s

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 1 MBL Where Are They Now?

A vaccine inventor, They tend to be high They are behind major flyers, the MBL’s alumni, breakthroughs in cell, an explorer of trustees past and present, developmental and and Corporation members. regenerative biology, suspended animation, neuroscience, microbiology, Many of them credit the and environmental research. and a Pulitzer Prize- MBL with playing a pivotal role in their careers, and in They are recipients of some winning author are shaping the mark they are of the world’s top awards: making in the world. the Nobel Prize, the Lasker some of the members Award, the Tyler Prize for They are leaders at esteemed Environmental Achievement, of the MBL family. institutions, entrepreneurs, to name a few. governmental advisors, founders of global health initiatives.

Wise Young MBL ties: Student, Neurobiology course, 1972; Grass Fellow, 1973; spent winter 1973-74 completing Ph.D. thesis in Loeb Laboratory

Present position: Distinguished researcher on spinal cord injury; chaired professor, Rutgers University; founding director, W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers

2 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 Judy St. Leger MBL ties: Student, Aquavet course, 1990, 1991

Present position: Director of pathology and research, SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, San Diego

As you read about their experiences, you may see a common theme in many of their reflections. While In this issue of MBL Catalyst, Adam Cohen they recognize the powerful we’ll hear from several MBL ties: Student, Physiology insights coming from our course, 2007 scientists whose work is era’s emphasis on how genes making a vital contribution Present position: Assistant work, they keep in mind the professor of Chemistry and to society. They share “macro” questions about Chemical Biology and of Physics, the MBL as a common Harvard University; Scientific biology, health and the touchstone, though their advisor to Liberian Ministry of environment, and about Education and the University paths are diverse and life itself. of Liberia worldwide.

At the MBL, they were Shimere Williams exposed to those big MBL ties: Student, Summer Program in questions—and they never Neuroscience, Ethics and Survival (SPINES), 2005 forgot it.

Present position: Professional staff member, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology

Justin Widener MBL ties: Ph.D., Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental , 2007

Present position: New project planner Matt Winkler at Merial, a global company producing MBL ties: Student, Embryology drugs and vaccines course, 1979; Consultant, Physiology course (1981); Faculty, Embryology course (1983, 1987).

Present position: ceo/chief scientific officer at Asuragen, an RNA-based therapeutic and diagnostics company; also founded Ambion, a biotech company sold in MBL Catalyst ll Fa 2010 3 2006 to Applied Biosystems Diamond in the Rough

The MBL inspires a future master of science and storytelling

Not many scientists get Achievement (2001), Diamond also won to dine on their own experiments. a 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his book Guns, But for students in the MBL’s Germs and Steel: The Fates of Invertebrate Zoology course in the Human Societies. The book offers a clear 1950s, extracurricular taste tests of scenario for how human civilizations marine creatures were part of the fun. arose and why some, such as those in Sometimes raw. Or cooked—even boiled Eurasia, flourished and gained hegemony into rubbery oblivion. over others. Diamond has published Jared Diamond scientist and author “Invertebrate Zoology was pure pleasure and excitement.” 1973 Fellow, American Academy According to famed author/scientist more than a dozen other books, most of Arts and Sciences Jared Diamond, now professor of of them technical, as well as the more 1979 geography and physiology at the popular treatments Collapse: How Member, National Academy of Sciences University of , Los Angeles, Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed 1984-present Contributing editor, Discover Magazine the summer-long MBL “Invert” course (2005) and The Third Chimpanzee: he took in 1957 was an exciting way to The Evolution and Future of the Human 1985 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship be introduced to the nuts and bolts of Animal (1992). biological research. 1988 Member, American Philosophical Predictably, Diamond’s books, research Society “It was the best course that I ever took papers, articles, and lectures often 1992 on any subject at any institution,” stimulate controversy, since he delves Britain’s Science Book Prize Diamond says. “There were about 100 boldly into contentious topics such as (The Third Chimpanzee) students, ranging from undergraduates— evolution, racism, , war 1993-present Director, World Wildlife Fund like myself—to junior faculty members. and behavior. The instructors were outstanding 1998 Pulitzer Prize zoologists headed by John Buck of the As a scientist, Diamond qualifies for (Germs, Guns and Steel: The Fate of National Institutes of Health, along with the title of Renaissance man. A Boston Human Societies) Howard Schneiderman, then a starting native, he graduated from Harvard in 1998 assistant professor at Cornell.” (The 1958, then went on to study physiology Japan’s International Cosmos Prize course “morphed” in the into the and the biophysics of membranes at 1999 MBL Neural Systems & Behavior course.) Cambridge University, earning his Ph.D. National Medal of Science in 1961. Diamond’s appointment at 2001 Tyler Prize for Environmental For Diamond, at the time a student at UCLA School of Medicine in 1968 was Achievement Harvard University, it was an auspicious originally in physiology, but he soon 2005 start for a sterling career. A recipient of began a parallel career in ornithology Member, Institute of Medicine the National Medal of Science (1999) and led 22 field expeditions to New and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Guinea and nearby tropical islands.

4 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 The MBL inspires a future master of science and storytelling

One of his victories was finding the And the tasting episodes generally came exotic, long-lost, golden-fronted at the end of the day. “We began with a bowerbird alive in New Guinea. The bird lecture about 9 AM, and then went into had not been seen by Western observers the field to collect the animal and see in nearly a century, and its existence was where it lived,” he recalls. “We brought known only through preserved skins in a it back to the lab, observed its behavior, London museum. did experiments in physiology, dissected it, and then—just out of curiosity—we “Invertebrate Zoology was pure pleasure and excitement.”

concluded by attempting to eat it. Many of them were interesting to eat. In the case of C. fornicata, we ate it raw, from one side to the other, but other times we “It was the ate it organ by organ, as in the case of the large surf clam. Or uselessly boiled, in the case of sea cucumbers. Its texture best course Along the way, Diamond also developed merely grew more rubbery, and the a third career—— tastelessness even more tasteless over and was subsequently named professor the course of 45 minutes of boiling.” of geography at UCLA while retaining his that I ever appointment in physiology. Many such things made the MBL course a unique experience, Diamond adds, Diamond recalls that one lesson “which I think no biology student would took on any learned at the MBL was to expect the get today. We obtained an overall unexpected. “Every animal proved to sense of each organism—from hold its surprises,” he says. “I recall environment to behavior to molecules— that tunicates have a blood pigment not merely as a name attached to an subject at any containing the rare element vanadium, extracted molecule. We were introduced and blood high in sulfuric acid. Ribbon to more than enough research problems worms have a pointed poison stylet [a to keep us going for a lifetime.” institution.” hard, sharp protrusion] on their tongues, and a spare poison stylet within the Invertebrate Zoology, Diamond says, brain. And Crepidula fornicata [sea “was pure pleasure and excitement.”• snails] are found in piles of up to a dozen —RC individuals, of which the top one became male and all the others female. We reshuffled piles to produce sex changes.”

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 5 N e w s & N o t e s MBL Scientist Spearheads Climate Change Report

A New Strategy for Polar Ocean Observation

Ecosystems Center director Hugh Ducklow observation system analogous to meteorological and his colleagues recently outlined a polar monitoring for weather forecasting.” Ducklow ocean observation strategy they say will and his colleagues conduct research on the revolutionize scientists’ understanding Western Antarctic Peninsula, where high of marine ecosystem response to climate operation costs and harsh conditions restrict change. The approach calls for a suite of the data coverage provided by research ships. automated technologies, including robotic “The comprehensive deployment of these networks, satellites, ships, and instruments observational systems in this location will mounted on and ice, to complement revolutionize our understanding of how marine traditional data collection. “We know more ecosystems are responding to climate change about Venus than we do about the Earth’s everywhere, not just in Antarctica,” says ,” says Ducklow. “We need an ocean Ducklow. (Science 328: 1520-1523, 2010) •

Regeneration Research Leaping Forward

The aquatic frog Xenopus is a major model in biomedical research. The animal’s ability to regenerate some of its tissues and organs, including the lens of its eye, makes it a particularly valuable tool for understanding how regeneration might be made possible in humans. The MBL recently received a five-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Center for Research Resources to establish a national Xenopus resource. Until now, there has been no central location in the United States for breeding these animals, maintaining genetic stocks, providing stocks to researchers, developing new experimental tools and husbandry techniques, or meeting other needs of the Xenopus research community. “This facility will play a key role in our new Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering and will serve as the premier national stock facility for Xenopus research,” says MBL Director and CEO Gary Borisy. “By studying this important research model, scientists will learn a great deal about the mechanisms of regeneration, knowledge that may one day lead to developing replacement tissues and organs for individuals suffering from medical conditions including diabetes, heart, liver and renal failure, emphysema, retinal disease, and spinal cord injuries.” •

6 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 Transition Metal In The Biological Bulletin, an international, peer-reviewed Catalysts Could journal published by the MBL, scientists propose a Be Key to solution to a paradox in origin-of-life theory: How could Origin of Life the basic biochemicals—such as nucleotides—have arisen before the biological catalysts (proteins or ribozymes) existed to carry out their formation? Harold Morowitz of George Mason University and his colleagues propose that a third type of catalyst could have jumpstarted metabolism and life itself, deep in hydrothermal vents. Rediscovery of the Nucleolinus According to the scientists’ model, structures involving transition metal elements (iron, copper, nickel, etc.) and When searching for long-lost ligands (small organic molecules) could have catalyzed the treasure, sometimes all you need synthesis of basic biochemicals (monomers) that acted as are the right tools. Such tools, in the building blocks for more complex molecules. “There has form of an ideal model organism been a big problem in the origin of life (theory) for the and a new molecular probe, have last 50 years in that you need large protein molecules to now been used to rediscover a long- be catalysts to make monomers, but you need monomers neglected cellular component—the to make the catalysts,” Morowitz says. However, he nucleolinus—and confirm its role suggests, “You can start out with these small metal- in cell division. In a recent issue ligand catalysts, and they’ll build up the monomers that of Proceedings of the National can be used to make the (protein catalysts).” These Academy of Sciences, MBL scientists increasingly complex molecules, they propose, then Mark and Mary Anne Alliegro, and acted as ligands in increasingly efficient transition metal- visiting investigator Jonathan Henry ligand complex catalysts. Gradually, the basic molecular of University of Illinois, Urbana, ingredients of metabolism accumulated and were able to report that the nucleolinus is self-organize into networks of chemical reactions that laid required for normal cell division, and the foundation for life. (Biol. Bull. 219: 1-6, 2010) • is spatially related to the developing spindle axis and pole. “Our paper reintroduces (a cell component) that was discovered, and forgotten, long A Future With or Without Trees ago,” says Mark Alliegro, who, with his colleagues, developed a probe In some cases, it can be that binds to specific nucleolinar difficult for scientists to see the molecules in surf clam egg cells. deforestation for the trees. Not Using the label and other means to so for Gillian Galford, a recent visualize the nucleolinus during early graduate of the Brown-MBL development, they found that it was Graduate Program in Biological associated with structures required and Environmental Sciences for cell division. “We’ve known for (and now a fellow at Columbia a long time that there are elements University’s Earth Institute). in the cytoplasm that need to be In a recent study, Galford and assembled for the cell to divide,” her colleagues considered two Mark Alliegro says. “But this tells scenarios for future land-use us that elements in the cytoplasm change in the Brazilian Amazon and in the nucleus have to join state of Mato Grosso, one of together to make the apparatus that the most dynamic places of separates chromosomes equally into changing land cover on the planet. In the business-as-usual scenario, deforestation occurs at daughter cells.” (PNAS 107: 13718- the same rates associated with the early 21st century, when native forest and grasslands were 13723, 2010) • being rapidly converted for agricultural uses. The other scenario, which better reflects trends of the past few years, takes into account the government’s pledge to reduce deforestation by 89 percent by 2020. The result is more than two times lower greenhouse gas emissions estimated through 2050. The study also demonstrates that future emissions estimates must account for historical land use, as the land use influences current and future emissions. Galford says that the strategies used in her study could be used in other tropical regions to predict the results of land-use changes. “With this type of exercise you could analyze a few different scenarios to determine what the consequences for your greenhouse gas emissions would be,” she says. (PNAS 107: 19649-19654, 2010). •

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 7 Life, Interrupted

Mark Roth stakes out the nether world of s u s p e n d e d a n i m a t i o n

When biologist Mark Roth was Yet Roth, over the past decade, has named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow found the questions that interest “I am very in 2007—a $500,000, no-strings- him most go beyond the intricacies attached award for individuals doing of a specific life process—such as cell interested in original, highly creative work—he division—in to address the larger took the opportunity to explain his picture. what we call unconventional approach. “I am very interested in what we life. That leads “The biggest risk I have taken in my call life,” he says. “That leads me career is to let go of the most common immediately to life and death and the me immediately means by which science is done, and bridge between them.” that is through taking things apart and to life and doing reductionist analysis,” he said That bridge is a place Roth calls in an interview with the MacArthur “suspended animation,” the interzone death and Foundation, which bestows the awards. in which all observable life processes Instead, Roth is attempting “the reverse are stopped—the creature doesn’t move, the bridge approach, to try and be expansionist, and breathe, the heart doesn’t beat, even see things as a whole.” the cells don’t divide—and yet it is not between them.” Hibernating dead. Some animals, such as hibernating mammals “turn Roth, a 1980 MBL Embryology course mammals, regularly turn themselves off themselves off,” alumnus and a researcher at the Fred in this way, later reanimating with no later reanimating Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in ill effects, which Roth terms “metabolic with no ill Seattle, has certainly travelled the terrain flexibility.” effects. of reductionist science. Over the course of his varied career, he has studied many “This metabolic flexibility is also present facets of cells and their molecules (and in the human condition, to various he discovered a class of proteins, the SR extents, if you are willing to consider proteins, along the way). near-death experiences where people are clinically dead, yet in some instances “In this era of inquiry, we are very can be reanimated,” he says. dictated by what we can show by genes,” Roth says. “There is definitely a campfire, Roth is convinced that “creatures, and many people are warming themselves and even cells, that have leanings around that magic molecule (DNA).” toward being immortal tend to have a tremendous amount of metabolic

8 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 Interrupted

flexibility. They can sit very quietly, or in suspended And that led Roth to wonder if such an agent existed that animation, for extended periods of time.” One example is could bring a larger animal, such as a human, into suspended bacterial spores, which are bacteria in a resting phase that can animation. The medical possibilities were profound. If heart last as long as 250 million years. Another is human female egg attack or trauma victims, for example, could be put into cells. A baby girl is born with a lifetime supply of eggs, but suspended animation, it could “buy time” for them en route they are “paused”—arrested mid-division. After she matures, to the hospital, and protect them from the damage they however, her eggs can “engage in fertilization, embryogenesis, would otherwise suffer due to lack of circulating oxygen. all these life processes that lead to the next generation. And yet they have this incredible capacity to meditate or suspend Roth found that missing agent serendipitously one night at or whatever your word is for doing nothing,” Roth says. home, while watching a TV program about Mexican caves

Suspended animation is a state in which all observable life processes are stopped—the creature doesn’t move, breathe, the heart doesn’t beat, even the cells don’t divide—and yet it is not dead.

Roth’s first published foray into this intriguing field was filled with the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide. When people in 2001, when he figured out how to induce suspended entered the caves, they slumped over as if dead. However, animation in zebrafish embryos through controlled oxygen if they were brought back into fresh air fairly quickly, they deprivation to the cells. After 24 hours, he “reawakened” the recovered with no damage done. embryos by exposing them to normal oxygen levels, and they went on to develop normally. Over the next few years, Roth Roth tried giving mice hydrogen sulfide and “it worked repeated his results in other creatures (yeast, worms, fruit flies, like a shot,” he says. The mice de-animated, their oxygen frogs). Strikingly, he found that the oxygen concentration consumption was reduced to “rock bottom,” and yet upon that induces suspended animation is just below the level of re-exposure to air they recovered without harm. oxygen deprivation at which the animals die. Roth was amazed by these discoveries. In 2005 he founded a “This should freak you out,” Roth said in a talk at the TED company, Ikaria, that is currently in phase II clinical trials to Conference in California in 2010. “Being exposed to low test the hypothesis that hydrogen sulfide improves outcomes oxygen does not always kill. Lower the oxygen just a bit in critical care medicine. more, and you get suspended animation.” “Hydrogen sulfide is naturally produced in the human body, Even more startling, Roth discovered with worms that if he mostly in the brain,” he says. “It has probably been regulating reduced oxygen to the level that normally would kill them, our (oxygen burn) since the beginning of time.” and then gave them carbon monoxide, they went into suspended animation. And the cells and tissues suffered no Thirty years ago, Roth’s experience in the MBL Embryology harm due to lack of oxygen. course awakened his appreciation for the “big questions” in biology. “It was incredible, because the MBL collection “That birthed for us the idea that you could use really toxic boats bring back such a diversity of things. You are looking molecules to regulate the creature’s ability to burn oxygen,” at sea urchins one class, sea stars the next, and so on. It was he says. a wonderful, eye-opening experience about the diversity of biology,” he says. “It gives you a feel for the broader issues surrounding biology, which are sometimes lost when people are forced to streamline on one single (signaling) pathway in some tissue culture cell for 40 years. Which happens.” • —DK

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 9 Bird Strike! A graduate of the Semester in Environmental Science program identifies the culprits that brought down a passenger plane

It was one of those calamities that The crew ended up in front of the TV ends up bringing out the best in everyone cameras, but they weren’t the only ones involved—“a miracle on the Hudson,” in who were called to respond. Gregory the words of New York Governor David Henkes, a graduate of the MBL’s Paterson. Semester in Environmental Science (SES) program in 2006, soon found himself On January 15, 2009, three minutes after involved in the drama. lifting off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, the passenger jet US Airways Henkes, then a research specialist at Flight 1549 collided with an oncoming the Smithsonian Institution, and eight flock of birds. Both engines immediately colleagues, including Peter Marra of the lost thrust and the pilot, Chesley National Zoo, were asked by the Federal Sullenberger, radioed that he would try Transportation Security Board to sort out to return to LaGuardia or reach a small the details of the bird-plane collision. airfield in . Both engines had swallowed up the birds as the plane made its ascent. From their But three minutes later, with no engine analysis, Henkes power, Sullenberger had to ditch the As the team noted later in their research and the team airliner into the icy Hudson River, which report in the journal Frontiers in Ecology, he accomplished with minimal impact bird collisions with aircraft are common identified the and maximum skill. The crew quickly and dangerous, and “information on birds as migratory evacuated the 155 passengers onto frequency, timing and involved, from the Labrador as well as the geographic origin of the the wings of the sinking plane, where region of Canada, they were rescued by a river ferry and birds, is critical” for avoiding repeat sightseeing boats. All the passengers accidents. rather than survived, and only five were injured. “resident” New As video of the dramatic event began York City geese. to circulate, Sullenberger and his crew were justly celebrated for their heroic professionalism.

10 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 Left: US Airways Flight 1549 is lifted out of the Hudson River.

Right: Greg Henkes collects sediment samples as a 2006 Semester in Bird Strike! Environmental Science student.

The team’s approach included DNA bar- after one of these lectures with John coding of feather fragments and tissue Holdren, now President Obama’s found in the jet engines, to determine science advisor. I’m still in awe from what species had hit the plane. Once that experience.” they identified them as Canada geese (Branta canadensis), they had to find out At the same time, Henkes says, he where the birds came from. For this, they made valuable connections with fellow analyzed the bird remains for their stable students, ties that have endured as hydrogen isotope composition, which they’ve spread out in pursuit of their can be used to characterize precipitation, own research careers. soils, and vegetation, and which varies with latitude. Birds incorporate this Henkes first learned about the isotope signature into their growing SES program through his faculty feathers after molt, which occurs near advisor, William Ambrose at Bates

“There was little room to escape—but that’s part of what makes [Woods Hole] great. You do science all the time!”

their “home” breeding site. From this College in Maine, where he was analysis, Henkes and the team identified pursuing a B.S. in biology. Based on the birds as migratory from the Labrador his own experience in SES and his region of Canada, rather than “resident” rapid in his chosen field of New York City geese. research, Henkes concludes, “SES is a wildly successful program. They For Henkes, participating in the MBL’s SES take the ‘invested’ approach in each program was an important stepping stone one of their students to an extreme, in a so-far fascinating career. The course, and I think that is validated by their he says, “was everything I thought it track record for producing many, would be: challenging, mildy isolated and many passionate science students.” very fun. What I didn’t expect was how Ken Foreman, a scientist in the MBL’s much I enjoyed Woods Hole. You are in Ecosystems Center, directs SES. the epicenter of all things marine science, biological, and oceanographic.” Henkes recently left the Smithsonian, where he was laboratory manager Indeed, he says, “There was little room for the stable isotope ratio mass to escape—but that’s part of what makes spectrometry laboratory at the it great. You do science all the time! My Museum Conservation Institute, interest in stable isotope ecology and to enroll in a graduate program in biochemistry grew in the SES program, geochemistry at the Johns Hopkins especially during the independent University. His interests now focus on research part of the semester.” paleoceanographic questions, such as ocean water temperatures deep in the At the MBL, Henkes met scientists whose Earth’s past history. names he’d only read on research papers, and there they were “in the same room “There are all sorts of interesting and better yet, I was listening to them applications in (the study of) lecture.” Also, “one of my favorite paleothermometry of past climates,” things was the bi-weekly seminars we he says, with evident anticipation. • went to, which were given by big names —RC outside of the MBL. I recall having dinner

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 11 MBL M o m e n t

. . . with Dyann Wirth Chair, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health Co-Director, Infectious Diseases Initiative, Broad Institute

The Evolution of A Cure

Every year, more than one million people die of malaria, and hundreds of millions are infected but survive. The majority of deaths are children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical regions where the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, thrive. Only a few anti-malarial drugs and no vaccine exist, and resistance to the most widely used drug, chloroquine, is now widespread. Dyann Wirth was in the first MBL Biology of Parasitism (BoP) course in 1980, and since that time she has devoted her research to understanding and combating malaria and other tropical diseases. As director of the Harvard Malaria Initiative since 1997, Wirth’s work encompasses both basic science and field-based studies, primarily in Senegal. Her team Dyann Wirth was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad Institute has created a map of at Harvard University in 1980 when the the most common genetic variants in the P. falciparum genome, which has led Wirth late Joshua Lederberg, then president of to think formally about the malaria parasite in evolutionary terms. She is keenly The Rockefeller University, encouraged interested in the mechanisms of drug resistance in the parasite: how they evolve and her to enroll in a new course at the MBL, how scientists might outsmart them. Biology of Parasitism (BoP). Wirth did so, and by the following summer she had been promoted to the faculty both MBL You have said, “Drug resistance is our fundamental work, we are analyzing of BoP and of Harvard School of Public just a special case of evolutionary biology.” the parasites that exist today and asking: Health. Today, she is the school’s Richard What do you mean by that? What do these survivors look like? P. Strong Professor and Chair, Department These are the parasites that have made it of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. DW Evolution is the selective pressures through the human immune system, drug She has developed many of the molecular on an organism over time. In the case of treatment, different mosquito vectors, genetic tools used in the investigation an organism that infects humans, such and so forth. of malaria and leishmania, and her as the malaria parasite or the HIV virus, group was the first to discover multidrug obviously the human immune system MBL Your studies of the Plasmodium resistance in these organisms. Wirth is going to make a big difference to its genome show a high degree of genetic received her Ph.D. in cell biology and evolution. And when we take drugs variability in the species. What does that virology at Massachusetts Institute of to combat these infections, that’s an imply for strategies to prevent and treat Technology. She has served on numerous externally applied force that provides malaria? national and international panels, selective pressure by killing the organism. including a tenure as president of the I call it a special case of evolutionary DW With Plasmodium, we can see that American Society of Tropical Medicine biology because often we know where many of the most highly variant genes and Hygiene, and in 2004 she was elected (in the organism’s genome) the drug is are on the surface of the parasite and to the Institute of Medicine, National targeted, so we know in what genes we hence are probably interacting with Academy of Sciences. The co-author of expect resistance to occur. For instance in the external environment, which is the 170 scientific publications, Wirth has the Plasmodium genome, we can see very human immune system when they are received numerous honors for her work. clearly the evolutionary footprint of the in humans. So that tells us probably the introduction and success of chloroquine biggest single footprint on the parasite in selecting parasites (that survived). So in genome is the human immune system. 12 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 “We are analyzing the parasites that exist today and asking: What do these survivors look like?”

And, certainly we’ve learned that the But beyond that, you also need local molecules that are currently being used in people who are trained to translate basic malaria vaccine trials are among the most science into medical and economic variant molecules in the parasite. So our applications. We refer to this as “from the prediction is that if we want to develop a genes to the globe.” You need the whole Plasmodium vaccine, it will have to take value chain. In the end, for this disease into account this genomic variability. This to be dealt with at a nationwide and is a problem with other vaccines, such as then worldwide level, there will need to for influenza, where every year there has be not only medical and humanitarian to be a new vaccine because of variation justifications for doing so, but also in the underlying population of flu economic development applications that viruses. We suggest that the flu will cause governments to embrace the might be the appropriate way to think Scientific colleagues in Ndioukhane, Senegal. idea of eradication. about Plasmodium vaccine development, rather than looking for that single magic MBL What role did the Biology of bullet where you pick a molecule as the Parasitism course play in your scientific life? Secondly, and equally importantly, vaccine target and that molecule protects diseases such as malaria are primarily the worldwide population forever. diseases of humans. There is no animal DW It was very important in the reservoir; there aren’t good animal models development of my career. It cemented MBL In your work with the Harvard for research. So to make fundamental my interest in parasitology, but it also Malaria Initiative, there has been a discoveries that will be important for helped me define initially what I would substantial effort to train scientists and prevention, treatment, and cure, it is work on from a research standpoint. public health officials in Senegal and other essential that one study the disease in One of the things BoP has always done is affected countries in methods for malaria the natural setting. And that means that introduce students to the leaders in the research. What is your rationale for that? you really need, on the ground, not field. Over the five years I was associated Why not just bring the research expertise of only intellectual infrastructure but also with the course, first as a student and Harvard and the Broad Institute to them? the experimental infrastructure. The then as faculty, I met all the major people most important scientific advances are in the then-emerging field of molecular DW Part of it is philosophical. As part occurring by analyzing the genomes of parasitology. And because I had particular of our mission, we feel that building the infectious organisms, and then testing molecular biology skills, it allowed me intellectual infrastructure in disease- the hypotheses created by those analyses to establish collaborations with people endemic countries is a very important both in the laboratory and in natural who were more focused on the biology pillar of the goal to control and eradicate populations. So you really need people or biochemistry side of things. So it was a the diseases. These are primarily diseases in the local area who have expertise in great opportunity for me to establish my of the developing world, and it is very the laboratory and in biological sciences, initial research program and make those important that there be local expertise. who will run epidemiological field trials, very important connections with people clinical trials. in the field. •

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 13 G i f t s & G r a n t s

Millicent Bell The Eunice Kennedy The National contributed Shriver National Institutes of Health $6 million to Institute of Child awarded $1.5 million establish the Health and Human in support of the Eugene Bell Center Development purchase of a “Live for Regenerative and the National Cell, High Speed Biology and Tissue Center for Research and Resolution Engineering at Resources awarded Spectral Confocal Course Director Mario the MBL. $3.4 million to Microscope.” Ascoli of the University establish the Peter Smith and of Iowa is the principal John W. Rowe “National Xenopus Rudolf Oldenbourg investigator. and Valerie Rowe Resource Center” are the principal contributed at the MBL. Robert investigators. DARPA awarded $5 million in Grainger of the $1.1 million for endowment University of Virginia The National a project titled support for the is the principal Institutes of Health “Cephalopod Inspired Eugene Bell Center investigator. awarded $1.2 million Adaptive Photonic for Regenerative in support of the Systems.” Roger Biology and Tissue MBL’s Frontiers in Hanlon is the principal Engineering. Reproduction course. investigator. •

A c c o l a d e s

Distinguished Scientist Shinya Inoué was honored by the Government of Japan with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon award.

Corporation member, former trustee, and alumnus Porter Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Other members of the MBL community receiving the honor include: Douglas Koshland, faculty, Physiology and Katsuma Dan Fellow; Susan Golden, faculty, Microbial Diversity; Terrence Sejnowski, alumnus and faculty, Neurobiology and Methods in Computational Neuroscience; and David Weitz, faculty, Physiology.

Jerry Melillo was named MBL Distinguished Scientist.

Peter Smith was awarded the Massachusetts General Hospital Martin Research Prize for excellence in basic research for a collaborative study of the acidification of the male reproductive system.

Microbial Diversity course faculty Thomas Schmidt received the 2010 American Society for Microbiology Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award for dedication to students and for fostering an intellectually stimulating environment.

Trustee Gerald Fink was awarded the 2010 Genetics Prize of The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation for his groundbreaking research in yeast genetics.

Bay Paul Center director Mitchell Sogin was awarded the Dr. Gordon Moore Environmental Grant from Ion Torrent.

14 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 C o o l T o o l

A Life-Saving Test

Porter Anderson (above) completes a Before 1990, thousands of children with another molecule, an endotoxin, each year were infected by Haemophilus sterile filling of vaccine which was causing the adverse reaction. influenzaetype b (Hib), a virulent vials circa 1990. In the So Anderson, who was then at Boston bacterium that causes meningitis, 1970s, Anderson relied Children’s Hospital, needed a simple, practical way to identify when endotoxin pneumonia, and other serious diseases. on the nascent Limulus In the 1970s, microbiologist Porter was present in the vaccine preparation. Amebocyte Lysate Anderson (an MBL Corporation member, (LAL) test to ensure former trustee, and ’89 Microbial “Fortunately, I was told that some folks Diversity alumnus) and pediatrician purity in his first- at the MBL had discovered proteins in David Smith began developing a vaccine generation Hib vaccine. the blood of the horseshoe crab that for Hib in infants, which was brought The LAL test sprang would clot if exposed to tiny amounts of endotoxin,” Anderson said to well- to market in 1990. Today, Hib is nearly from basic research at eradicated in the United States and wishers gathered at the MBL last the MBL in the 1950s Hib vaccines, used worldwide, have summer to celebrate his election to and 1960s, and is saved hundreds of thousands of lives. the National Academy of Sciences. “I Anderson and Smith were honored by a now used in medical found my way to the old Marine Supply Lasker Award in 1996. settings worldwide. “I Building and asked for some of this am a poster child for reagent. A helpful guy said, ‘We have none to offer, but I will sell you some But the road from basic research to the concept that basic- saving lives is typically far from smooth, horseshoe crabs, show you how to bleed discovery science can and the MBL played an important role them, and if you take the blood into have a practical payoff in helping Anderson to navigate its yonder brick building (Lillie), maybe bumps. Anderson’s first attempt at the years later,” Anderson somebody will let you use a centrifuge vaccine used the outermost component says. “It continues to to process the blood into the reagent.’ (a polysaccharide) of the Hib microbe help in my current work I did this, and drove back to Boston with supply of the so-called Limulus as the crucial molecule recognized toward an inexpensive by the recipient’s immune system. Amebocyte Lysate (LAL). With this pneumonia vaccine for However, early preparations caused assay, it was straightforward to devise a infants.” inflammation and fever because when method to remove the endotoxin from the polysaccharide was isolated from the the polysaccharide. The latter proved Hib microbe, it was often contaminated non-toxic, as hoped, and it became the first-generation Hib vaccine.” •

MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 15 S c i e n t i s t ’ s E y e V i e w

The Whole Landscape

By Molly Miller Jahn

Like many of us who choose science as our life’s work, I spend a fair amount of time asking questions. That was true in my earliest days as a scientist in the MBL’s Microbial Diversity course. It is still true in the current roles I play, supporting large, complex research and educational institutions toward excellence and impact. In fact, it turns out that the questions we ask, and how we choose to pursue their answers, matter at least as much as the answers themselves.

From the beginning, my research has focused on interactions among organisms and with the environment, with outcomes that matter to human beings. The Microbial Diversity A participant in the 1981 MBL Microbial course illuminated the vast expanse of metabolic diversity on this planet. I took those Diversity course, Molly Miller Jahn is dean of insights to agriculture, the dominant human activity on Earth, and one that has planet- the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences scale implications for biodiversity, air and water quality, and the human condition. For at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She recently completed a seven-month tenure as 15 years, within the reductionist paradigm of molecular genetics, I worked to define the acting under secretary for research, education mechanisms that govern plant disease resistance and bred vegetable varieties resistant to and economics at the U.S. Department of disease, many of which are grown commercially today. We could measure the reductions in Agriculture. Prior to her appointment at use and the improvements in yield, nutrition and income. UW-Madison in 2006, Jahn established a highly recognized research career at Cornell This work was satisfying, and the results rewarding. And then I looked up. With great gains University in genetics, genomics, and breeding of crop plants, releasing more than two dozen in agricultural productivity, our nation still has not declared food security a human right. varieties currently grown commercially on six This generation of American children may be the first to face life expectancies shorter continents including an All America Selection than their parents. In the developing world, obesity now rivals food insufficiency as a Gold Medal winner. She founded the Public health threat for the world’s poorest. And over those same 15 years, our planet crossed Seed Initiative in 2001 and later the Organic some significant lines. Millions of acres have been deforested. Glaciers are vanishing at an Seed Partnership to engage hundreds of U.S. astonishing rate. From my niche in the reductionist paradigm, the incremental advances farmers in participatory plant breeding and germplasm conservation activities. She has within my reach, as worthy and important as they may be, were not stacking up as I had also worked extensively in Africa, Asia and expected. Latin America to link crop breeding objectives to improvement in human nutrition and So I shifted gears. For the past five years, I’ve held two roles that have allowed me to push income, and has held leadership roles in major hard into this uncomfortable space. As dean at a large research university, and recently in international agricultural projects. Under an interim leadership post with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I have begun working Jahn’s tenure at UW-Madison, funding for several major facilities and research centers across larger communities to deliver the strengths of the scientific community into these has been secured, including the Wisconsin larger challenges. In doing so, I live in the collision between the power and clarity of Energy Institute for sustainable and renewable reductionist science and the urgent need to address the largest dynamics on our planet as energy research; the $135 M DOE Great Lakes systems. How should our scientific organizations be structured to deliver excellence in both Bioenergy Research Center; and the Wisconsin models? How should scientists be trained and supported to continue the catalytic advances Bioenergy Initiative. Jahn received her B.A. available within reductionist frameworks while gaining meaningful understanding of with Distinction from Swarthmore College, holds graduate degrees from Cornell and MIT, systems-level dynamics that begin with complexity and uncertainty? and was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in 2006. The questions that call me today are hardly the ones I anticipated during my days at MBL. These questions call us as scientists into new communities with new tools and new views, toward threats and opportunities that didn’t even have names 20 years ago. My belief that science will provide absolutely essential insights as we set our course for the future has only strengthened. Now it is clear. Our planet is the experiment. • 16 MBL Catalyst Fall 2010 http://www.dreamstime.com/log- out.php

M e m o r a b i l i a T r e a s u r e s f r o m t h e M BL’ s A r c h i v e s

Rachel Carson in Woods Hole in 1929, when she spent six weeks at the MBL as a beginning investigator in zoology. She returned to the MBL in 1932 to carry out research on teleosts (bony ), while she was a master’s student at the . Photo by Mary Frye.

A Gift to the Sea

Rachel Carson had her first taste of living by the sea when she spent the summer of 1929 at the MBL, and it left a deep impression that would carry through her life and career. Carson went on to blend her talents as a biologist and a writer at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, where she became chief editor. Her second book, (1951) made her famous, spending months on the bestseller lists and winning the . Carson returned to Woods Hole in 1951 and 1952 to conduct research for The Edge of the Sea (1955), and at that time she became a member of the MBL Corporation. Her final book, (1962), carved her place in history, as its account of the devastating impact of chemical on wildlife and the environment was a wake-up call that led to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. While Carson’s reputation rests on having galvanized a major cultural awakening, her heart, more simply, belonged to the sea. •

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Our Home Planet: Seeking Balance

When the MBL Ecosystems Center was founded in 1975, the idea that human activities were leaving a big footprint on our environment was just entering the public debate. Today, the evidence of our impact is everywhere—in our atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, coastal zones, our drinking water sources, trees and plants, even the ground beneath our feet. In the next issue of MBL Catalyst, MBL scientists will share what is known about human impacts on the environment, what is not known, and what we must do to restore a healthy balance.