Hughes Institute Plans New Campus for Innovative Research

Gerry Rubin, Janelia director

By Whitney L.J. Howell

Most innovative ideas have humble beginnings, and the latest expansion of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is no different. The institute's new Janelia Farms Campus, designed to house scientific investigators engaged in less traditional research, was first outlined on the back of a napkin.

During a 1999 meeting in Boulder, Colo., current Janelia Director and HHMI Vice President Gerry Rubin, Ph.D., and David Clayton, Ph.D., HHMI vice president and chief scientific officer, discussed the project and sketched an outline on a restaurant napkin. Since then, the idea has blossomed into an entire research community that will soon stand near the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. Janelia's scientific drive mirrors the unorthodox nature of some HHMI research as it funds initiatives that are unlikely to receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant support or be conducted at a university.

Janelia Farms, located in Loudoun County, Va., an hour from the HHMI headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md., will be a haven for researchers whose riskier ventures may require more than five or 10 years to bear fruit.

"At HHMI we do things a little differently," Dr. Rubin said. "We have a proven way of working - we fund people, not projects. We identify good scientists and trust that they know better how to conduct their research than we do."

The Janelia campus will serve about 400 people, most of whom will be researchers. It is scheduled to open in 2006 with more than 750,000 square feet of building space. Laboratories, conference rooms and housing facilities will soon cover the 281 acres along the Potomac River, providing researchers with a quiet, unencumbered atmosphere for investigation. Overall, the venture will cost $500 million with $308 million to $320 million being used to pay for site development and construction costs. Work on the Janelia campus will comprise 10 percent of HHMI's projects.

While the scientific thrust will be the same, Dr. Rubin points out that this initiative is designed to nurture research efforts that could not be conducted in a university environment as current HHMI projects are.

"This is not a switch, but we'll have some investigators working in a different environment," he said. "We don't want to be competing with our existing investigations or their institutions. If the work can be done at a university, we won't do it at Janelia. This is an add-on experiment."

Janelia's construction site was chosen for two reasons, Dr. Rubin said. The first was to be close to the HHMI headquarters, a short distance from NIH, and the second was to avoid any perception of favoritism by linking with an existing university. By setting Janelia apart, individuals are more likely to interact with each other within the campus rather than branching out to neighboring organizations and institutions.

Independent Location

However, HHMI's decision to build Janelia in Northern Virginia away from other academic institutions and scientific companies has drawn mixed reactions. Michael Hindery, Stanford University's senior associate dean for finance and administration, said if Janelia is designed and administered properly, it should be
a resounding success.

"If you have the right mix of people, the location needn't be a negative," Hindery said. "What's important is that they're bringing working scientists together on a full-time basis for a time before sending them back out into the milieu."

But Keith Yamamoto, Ph.D., dean for research at the University of California at San Francisco, said he is concerned the timing and location of the Janelia campus might not be the best. However, if HHMI handles the project correctly, he said, the benefit could be outstanding.

"The big payoff will come from working together," he said. "I appreciate the boldness of what they're trying to do."

Although the campus will be virtually isolated from other academic medical institutions and might keep some scientists in a research cocoon for a few years, Dr. Rubin said that does not mean the investigative results will remain hidden. Rather, scientists will publish papers and journals, as well as participate in educational programs that will disseminate their findings.

"We want our scientists' work to be widely available," he said. "We want it to eventually reach the bedside."

Although the birth of the Janelia campus will mean fewer HHMI funds will be filtered into academic institutions across the country for future projects, financial dips did not seem to factor heavily into the academic medical community's reaction to the new endeavor. In fact, funding for the current HHMI investigators is not in jeopardy. Instead, some of the concern is focused on high-end technology at the new location.

The campus organization and construction, Dr. Yamamoto said, fall at a time when scientists working outside Janelia would greatly benefit from access to these facilities and technologies.

"We recognize that this is a big undertaking for HHMI, and by necessity they'll have to negotiate the importance of their spending," Dr. Yamamoto said. "The general perception is that the impact will be in HHMI's support of high-end instrumentation and the perception that these resources will be consolidated at Janelia Farms."

HHMI's collaborative effort garnered kudos from Hindery. He said HHMI's plan resonates with Stanford because it is similar to the university's own research methods.

"I can't criticize them for multidisciplinary approaches," he said. "It's good science these days, and good outcomes will come from it."

Because Janelia is independently funded by HHMI and requires no third-party financial support, it will provide long-term backing for less popular research projects. However, the categories in which this research will be conducted have yet to be determined. Dr. Rubin said the research areas will be decided through a workshop process, involving approximately 30 people per event.

During the workshops, scientists will be asked to draw up a list of research projects they would like to pursue which could not be underwritten by a university. The participants vary in experience from first-year researchers to seasoned professionals and are precluded from discussing their own research. The most recent workshop on perception and behavior produced a strong discussion and many research possibilities, Dr. Rubin said.

"It was extremely successful," he said. "One participant said it was the only meeting he had attended in the last 20 years where people said what they were actually thinking."

In addition to perception and behavior, Janelia has also scheduled workshops in other areas: biochemistry of single cells; membranes, membrane proteins and membrane-associated molecular machines; functional imaging in living systems and imaging cellular structures. All of the meetings will be completed this summer, but this is by no means a list of the final subject areas Janelia will confront, Dr. Rubin said. The workshops could pinpoint potential research ideas, but the door will be open to adding additional categories to the research blueprint.

Help Wanted

Despite its unorthodox approach to scientific research and discovery, Janelia plans to choose participating scientists in a rather conventional way - through applications and résumés. Dr. Rubin said the institute will accept applications this fall. The most senior faculty members, who will serve as mentors, will be recruited from existing institutions.

This fall Janelia's directors will hire 24 group leaders to monitor two to six researchers. These leaders will be equivalent to existing HHMI investigators nationwide and will be evaluated by an outside expert peer review panel after their first six years on the campus. After the review they can be renewed for another five years, be allowed to transfer after two additional years or be granted temporary reassignment during their next appointment at Janelia. Janelia will not grant tenure, Dr. Rubin said.

In addition to the group leaders, Janelia will also have fellows with five-year appointments. The fellows will be recent doctoral graduates with no more than two years of postdoctoral work completed, experienced researchers looking for a career change or long-term scientists who wish to remain in a research environment rather than shift to an administrative position. Dr. Rubin said fellows are expected to secure positions at other institutions after their five-year term at Janelia. However, they will not be prohibited from applying for a group leader position.

Graduate students and visiting investigators will also be included in Janelia's research mix. Selected graduate students will be affiliated with a degree-granting institution. Visiting scientists will also have an ongoing link to an institution or company. Three types of visitors will be selected: current HHMI investigators, short-term visitors and project teams.

Accepted HHMI investigators would ground part of their research activities at Janelia and would spend between 10 percent and 25 percent of their time at the campus for one to five years. Short-term visitors could work at Janelia for one week to one year in collaboration with a resident scientist. Project teams (totaling between four and 20 individuals) can apply to conduct collaborative work that may involve a group leader. Their stay could last for several years.

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