Cell Biologist Ruoslahti Nurtures While He Works

The name Erkki Ruoslahti appears so frequently below the titles of groundbreaking cell biology papers in top-quality journals, it should be a household word in cell laboratories by now. Three of his team’s papers have been listed among The Scientist’s ‘Hot Papers’ during the past three months; two other papers have made it into the Institute for Scientific Information’s Current Contents listing of the 100 most-cited life-sciences articles for 1986. Many Stars While Ruoslahti’s name has been appearing with consistency, however, the names of his coauthors frequently change—not because he’s tough to work with, but because he seems to have a gift for developing the talents of colleagues who later move on to lead teams of their own. Ruoslahti works at the 12-year-old La Jolla (Calif.) Cancer Research Foundation, where there are many stars among the cell biologists on its 150-person staff. For instance Eva Engvall, creator of the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test—an important test for antibodies to HIV—and a long-time collaborator with Ruoslahti, has a lab team just down the hail from Ruoslahti’s. And Michael Pierschbacher, a former Ruoslahti postdoc and team member who discovered a critical three-amino acid sequence common in many extracellular matrix proteins, has his own team at the foundation and continues to collaborate with Engvall and Ruoslahti. But through a combination of necessity and desire, Ruoslahti depends most heavily on young postdocs coming straight from their graduate studies to work with him. “One of the things we pretty much have to do as an (independent) institution is build up our own people. We don’t have the muscle to go out there and buy big shots and bring them here,” he says. “In a way, I think it’s just as well because, in the end, we may make more of a contribution if we take relatively young people and give them the opportunity to become stars and then build upon that.” And often those postdocs, like Pierschbacher, go on to make names for themselves in cell biology. It’s not, of course, that Ruoslahti takes “nobodies” and turns them into “superstars.” When he is recruiting, he says, he knows exactly what to look for. Part of what he looks for is an already-established record of achievement “They have to have produced something that is a solid contribution,” Ruoslahti says. Kurt Gehisen, the principle author on the team’s latest report in Science (September 2, 1988, page 1228) is fairly typical of most of Ruoslahti’s team members. He came to La Jolla just over two years ago from the University of Arizona with a doctorate in anatomy. He knew nothing about molecular biology techniques used in the lab, but he was anxious to learn. “I wanted to come here and be a sponge,” Gehlsen says. But he was a good deal more than a sponge; he came armed with an innovative system for studying tissue invasion that he developed during graduate school and that is now used in Ruoslahti’s lab. In their Science paper, the teem reported ‘identifying the receptor that allows a cell to attach to a specific protein called laminin. The discovery is important in understanding how nerves are formed and brings scientists closer to finding a way to repair them. Non-Stop Discoveries That significant discovery is only the latest in an almost non-stop series by Ruoslahti teams over the last 15 years that,, taken together, have dramatically changed the way scientists think about cells and how cells act. Scientists once believed that all that lay between cells was muscle and the protein collagen. Today, thanks to research by Ruoslahti and his team members, scientists know that the space between cells is filled with a complicated mesh of proteins—called an extracellular matrix. The proteins appear to have specific characteristics that influence how cells stick together, are repelled from each other, and move around the body. This new view has broadened understanding of how tumors are formed and how their formation might be stopped or prevented. Ruoslahti did his early research in Finland, his homeland, and at the City of Hope, a hospital and medical research center in Duarte, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles. Since 1979, thought the tall, lanky Finn has conducted his scientific work at the La Jolla foundation, where he serves as vice president and scientific director. The foundation’s research is divided into four sections: extracellular matrix and cell adhesion; carbohydrate chemistry and tumor promoters; gene regulation; and oncogenes and growth factors. Ruoslahti’s team is one of eight that work in the extracellular matrix and cell adhesion section. His 14-member team has a strong international flavor, with researchers from Italy, Finland, Switzerland. Japan, and the United States. It is composed of a combination of visiting scientists on one-year sabbaticals and postdocs who generally sign on for three-year stints. One graduate student from the nearby University of California, San Diego, campus, and a technician also work on the team. Ruoslahti isn’t sure what makes his group of talented young researchers so consistently productive. However, he says: “One thing I try to do in my group is see that everyone is fairly happy.” Scott Argraves, a former Ruoslahti postdoc who recently joined the American Red Cross’ new Jerome H. Holland Lab in Rockville, Md. was happy. He suggests the key to the team’s high-quality production can be found in Ruoslahti himself For one thing, Ruoslahti has an unusual ability to anticipate future directions in his field. Moreover, he makes a point of interacting with his team and keeping team members up to date on trends in cell biology. In fact, twice a day, everyday, he holds meetings for his team (and anyone at the foundation interested in sitting in)—once in the morning and once in the afternoon. At the meetings, team members share pertinent journal articles they have read, or they discuss their own work. Ruoslahti has an unusual way of staying active in science as well as keeping up with his administrative duties. He maintains two desks— one in the lab and one in his executive office on the main floor of the foundation. Ruoslahti works at the laboratory desk, amid his team members, most of the time; he uses the executive office to receive visitors. All this has brought Ruoslahti more than just the accolades of the world outside his foundation. In September, the foundation’s trustees announced that Ruoslahti would be named president next year when the foundation’s founder, William Fishman, retires. Ruoslahti will take the new post just as the nonprofit foundation begins a 10-year program to more than double its size and increase its annual $9 million budget. Throughout the expansion, Ruoslahti says, he intends to remain active in his lab, guiding his team. “See, when you're a scientist, your real security is in generating papers and having grants,” Ruoslabti says. “All these titles, being an executive and all that, don’t mean much. These things will change. But good science will always endure.” Kathryn Phillips is a freelance writer based in Pasadena, Calif.

Cell Biologist Ruoslahti Nurtures While He Works

Many Stars

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