An Evolutionary Institute

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (MPIEA) in Leipzig, Germany, recently concluded that differences in the expression patterns of genes distinguish humans from chimpanzees, though they share 98.7% of their DNA sequences.1 The team, led by geneticist Svante Pääbo, found that human expression patterns in the brain exhibited pronounced differences from those of chimpanzees and other apes, in effect, pointing to an accelerated rate of evolution of our mental organ. The remarkable study received international coverage and drew attention to a young and energetic research institution that may play a leading international role in evolutionary anthropology. The MPIEA was founded in 1997 in the former East Germany as part of an attempt to create "a single research landscape," as the political catch phrase called it, in the reunited federation. Since reunification, 20 new Max Planck Institutes have been built in eastern Germany, bringing the total in Germany to 80. The Leipzig institute employs 250, including 31 full-time scientists and 78 junior scientists and guest researchers. The total is expected to increase to 350 toward the end of the year, when the institute takes up residence in a new $33 million (US), 130,000-square-foot facility. Max Planck Institutes are largely publicly funded, with the German federal and provincial governments equally contributing 85% of the budgets. Membership fees and donations pay remaining costs. Visiting researchers also may be paid by outside stipends or grants. In keeping with the rules of the Max Planck Society, the institutes pursue innovative research in the humanities as well as in the social and biological sciences that the country's universities do not conduct. In the case of anthropology, that mandate could easily be met. The field provided the underpinnings of Nazi ideology and has therefore been largely shunned in postwar Germany. Attitudes have changed with time, however, and following reunification, a new generation was ready to tackle the sensitive subject. Recipe for New Research Building the institute from scratch presented a unique opportunity, Pääbo says. "We could try something new and decided to approach the question of what makes humans human from as many different perspectives as possible," he explains. Four closely knit departments investigate genes, culture, cognition, behavior, and social systems in both humans and apes. In the United States, only the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta(www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/) has a similar mission and comparable resources. That Center's director, Frans de Waal, an eminent primatologist, welcomes the establishment of the institute in Leipzig as "very timely," given "the increasing interest in Darwinian approaches to human behavior." The Max Planck Society has always aimed to draw the best in the field. In the case of human evolution, that meant top talent had to be found abroad. None of the four MPIEA department heads is German. Pääbo, in charge of the genetics department, is Swedish. American Michael Tomasello, who began his career in behavioral studies at Yerkes, heads comparative psychology. Bernard Comrie, a British researcher who gained most of his professional experience in the United States, heads linguistics, and Christophe Boesch, a Swiss researcher well known for his work with chimpanzees in the wild, directs primatology. Pongoland (from Pongides, Latin for the great ape family), housing 37 chimpanzees, bonobo, orangutans and gorillas, recently opened at the Leipzig Zoo. Research stations in Ivory Coast and Uganda allow scientists to study the animals in their milieu. The institute's soon-to-be finished home will provide researchers with the most up-to-date molecular labs, space for psychological and behavioral observation, clean rooms, and a phonetics lab and mouse house. The society plans to add paleontology and evolution of social systems departments, and researchers are needed (www.eva.mpg.de). Competition for resources between the institutes is fierce. That's why the Society does not reveal budget figures for the separate institutes, explains chief administrative assistant Sandra Jacob. Renowned Research Meanwhile, significant work has already brought the institute to the attention of the international research community. Besides leading the study on comparative genetics, Pääbo authored a paper establishing that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens are separate species.2 The institute's geneticists also questioned puzzling claims, made in some previous reports, that males outside the group sire half the offspring in a colony of chimpanzees. "We discovered that that's just not true," says Linda Vigilant, an American who led the study. Analysis of DNA extracted from feces established that dads do indeed mostly come from within a colony. Vigilant, who received her PhD in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley and did postgraduate work at Pennsylvania State University, came to Leipzig three years ago, husband and two children in tow. She describes people in Leipzig as genuinely interested in newcomers. The dynamics of a city busy catching up with the West are exciting, she adds. Her initial lack of German posed no problem, "since about half of the staff is non-German, the default language tends to be English." Meetings and seminars are conducted in English and even the chitchat around the cappuccino machine, the German equivalent of the water cooler, is mostly in English. Silvia Sanides (sanides@cs.com)is a freelance writer in Charlottesville, Va. References 1. W. Enard et al., "Intra- and interspecific variation in primate gene expression patterns," Science, 296:340-3, April 12, 2002. 2. M Krings et al., "Neandertal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans," Cell, 90:1-3, 1997.

An Evolutionary Institute

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