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Protein Folding || Brain Disorders || Postdocs || Embryonic Development JULY 2001 JJaneliaanelia Farm:Farm: CultivatingCultivating thethe NN ewew ofof TT oolsools BiologyBiology FEATURES 10 Janelia Farm 20 Rosetta Tackles the HHMI plans to transform a Virginia farm into Extreme Origami of a unique laboratory complex where interdiscipli- Protein Folding nary teams will create advanced tools for David Baker’s model is producing remarkably biomedical research. The inside story of how a accurate predictions. “what if?” idea became a $500 million project. By Dennis Meredith By M. Mitchell Waldrop 24 The Invisible Scientists When the Brain Fails 16 More pay. Better benefits. Increased mentoring. Huda Zoghbi unravels the genetics of Rett A report carried out with HHMI support says syndrome and other disorders. postdoctoral fellows need all this—and more. By Nancy Ross-Flanigan By Karen Young Kreeger 28 DEPARTMENTS 2 NOTA BENE NEWS AND NOTES Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin 28 Ticks Inspire a Young Scientist PRESIDENT’S LETTER July 2001 || Volume 14 Number 3 3 29 Discovering a “Sweet-Tooth” The Chemistry of Gene HHMI TRUSTEES James A. Baker, III, Esq. Creativity at Janelia 30 Kurt Weiss Battles Cancer— Senior Partner, Baker & Botts Alexander G. Bearn, M.D. Farm This Time, to Help Others Executive Officer, American Philosophical Society Adjunct Professor, The Rockefeller University UP FRONT Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Cornell University Medical College 31 Science News for the Spanish- Frank William Gay 4 Science as Training for a Speaking World Former President and Chief Executive Officer, summa Corporation Lifetime James H. Gilliam, Jr., Esq. 32 Evolution in a Test Tube Former Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Beneficial Corporation 6 Undergraduates Learn 32 Tracing Neural Clues to Eating Hanna H. Gray, Ph.D., CHAIRMAN President Emeritus and Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service About Science and Life in and Willpower Professor of History, The University of Chicago Labs Overseas Garnett L. Keith 33 A Teachable Moment in the Chairman, SeaBridge Investment Advisors, L.L.C. Former Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, The Prudential Waiting Room Insurance Company of America 8 Erin O’Shea: Learning the Jeremy R. Knowles, D.Phil. Secrets of Cell Signaling Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Amory Houghton 34 CLOSE-UP Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Harvard University The Beautiful Logic of William R. Lummis, Esq. Former Chairman of the Board of Directors Development and Chief Executive Officer, The Howard Hughes Corporation Irving S. Shapiro, Esq., CHA I RMAN EME R I T U S Of Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom 36 OBJECT LESSON Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Explaining the Brain E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Anne M. Tatlock Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fiduciary Trust Company International 38 FROM THE TOOLBOX New Technique Reveals HHMI OFFICERS Neuronal Calcium Channels Thomas R. Cech, Ph.D., President Peter J. Bruns, Ph.D., Vice President for Grants in Action and Special Programs David A. Clayton, Ph.D., Vice President for Science Development 40 INSIDE HHMI Stephen M. Cohen, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Joan S. Leonard, Esq., Vice President and General Counsel An Investigator’s Right-Hand Gerald M. Rubin, Ph.D., Vice President for Biomedical Research Man in the Laboratory Nestor V. Santiago, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer 41 HHMI ONLINE HHMI BU L LET I N S TA F F David Jarmul, Issue Editor 16 The Bulletin Goes Online Kimberly Blanchard, Production Supervisor Elizabeth Cowley, Copy Editor On the Cover: A barn stands near the entrance of Jennifer Donovan, Education Editor 29 HHMI’s new Janelia Farm site. Patricia Foster, Manager of Publishing Photograph by William K. Geiger Jim Keeley, Science Editor Dean Trackman, Copy Editor The next issue of the Bulletin will have a new name on David Herbick Design, Publication Design the masthead—and it is a pleasure to introduce Cori Vanchieri, the new editor. Cori was an undergraduate at Telephone (301) 215 8855 n Fax (301) 215 8863 n www.hhmi.org Cornell University and earned a master’s degree in jour- The Bulletin is published by the HHMI Office of Communications, nalism at Stanford University. She has extensive editing Robert A. Potter, Director. and writing experience in science, medicine, and © 2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute health, and for 10 years was on the communications staff of the National Cancer Institute. We look forward Letters to the editor: We invite your comments. Send your letters via e-mail to [email protected] or regular mail to Letters, Office of to her leadership in creating a magazine that accurately Communications, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones portrays the work and the spirit of the Howard Hughes Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815-6789. We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Please also include your name, address Medical Institute—and the incredible pace of discovery (e-mail or postal) and phone number. and change that is characterizing biomedical research. SCOTT GOLDSMITH (OPPOSITE), PAM FRANCIS (TOP) —Robert A. Potter, Director of Communications The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by authors in the HHMI Bulletin do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. NOTA BENE Cleveland Prize for 2000. Established in I hhmi investigators Pamela J. Bjorkman, David Ginsburg, an hhmi investigator at 1923, the award recognizes an outstanding California Institute of Technology; the University of Michigan Medical School, paper published in Science. Peter Cresswell, Yale University; Pietro V. De received the school’s 2000 Distinguished Camilli, Yale University; John H. Exton, Faculty Achievement Award. Charles J. Sherr, an hhmi investigator at Vanderbilt University; Jeffrey M. Friedman, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in The Rockefeller University; Philip P. Green, hhmi investigators Corey S. Goodman, Memphis, won the 2000 Ernst W. Bertner University of Washington; John Kuriyan, The University of California, Berkeley, and Thomas Award for Cancer Research from the Rockefeller University; Richard P. Lifton, Yale M. Jessell, Columbia University College of University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer University; and Ronald D. Vale, University of Physicians and Surgeons, shared the 2001 March Center. California, San Francisco, were elected to of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. membership in the National Academy of Christine E. Seidman, an hhmi investiga- Sciences. H. Robert Horvitz, an hhmi investigator tor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, at the Massachusetts Institute of Boston, and Jonathan G. Seidman, an hhmi Kristi S. Anseth, an hhmi investigator at Technology, shared the 2000 Louisa Gross investigator at Harvard Medical School, the University of Colorado at Boulder, won Horwitz Prize with hhmi investigator were co-recipients of a 2000 award given by the 2001 Outstanding Young Investigator Stanley J. Korsmeyer of the Dana-Farber the Gill Heart Institute of the University of Award from the Materials Research Society. Cancer Institute. Columbia University Kentucky for their contributions to cardio- awards the prize to recognize outstanding vascular research. Richard Axel, an hhmi investigator at research in biology or biochemistry. Columbia University College of Jonathan S. Stamler, an hhmi investiga- Physicians and Surgeons, received the Robert J. Lefkowitz, an hhmi investiga- tor at Duke University Medical Center, New York Academy of Medicine’s 2001 tor at Duke University Medical Center, received the 2001 Outstanding Investigator Academy Medal for his contributions to received the 2001 Peter Harris Award in Basic Science from the American biomedical science. Distinguished Award from the International Federation for Medical Research Society for Heart Research. Foundation. Günter Blobel, an hhmi investigator at The Rockefeller University, received the Pat Lisoskie, a high school teacher in Susan S. Taylor, an hhmi investigator at Grosse Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern, the Turnwater, Washington, won the 2000 the University of California, San Diego, won highest civilian honor awarded by Germany. Presidential Medal for Excellence in Math the 2001 Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin and Science Teaching. She was recognized for Medal, awarded by the American Chemical Mark M. Davis, an hhmi investigator at a unit on bioethics that she wrote as a partic- Society to an American woman chemist. Stanford University School of Medicine, ipant in the hhmi-supported Woodrow won the 2000 William B. Coley Award from Wilson National Fellowship Foundation’s Bert Vogelstein, an hhmi investigator at the Cancer Research Institute for his Leadership Program for Teachers. The Johns Hopkins University School of achievements in the fields of basic and can- Medicine, received the 2001 American cer immunology. Roderick McInnes, an hhmi international Association of Pathologists’ Award for research scholar at Toronto’s Hospital for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics. Stephen J. Elledge, an hhmi investigator Sick Children, has been appointed scientific at Baylor College of Medicine, received the director of the Genetics Institute of the Arthur Weiss, an hhmi investigator at 2000 Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Award for Canadian Institutes of Health Research. the University of California, San Francisco, Research Excellence and the 2001 G.H.A. won the American Association