Hughes Medical Institute Spreads Its Riches Far And Wide

“I didn’t need to think about the offer very long,” Tjian says with a laugh, recalling his initial shock. HHMI was offering to bankroll Tjian’s research on DNA transcription for a minimum of seven years, and possibly for the rest of his career. And he wasn’t the only one. As the nation’s largest private sponsor of biomedical research, the institute spent about $200 million last year supporting senior investigators like Tjian. After becoming a Hughes Institute investigator, Tjian relinquished many of his federal and outside grants. But he hasn’t missed the weeks of proposal writing and red tape. ‘It’s cut down on my headaches a lot,” he says about his new source of funding. “I feel I’m in a privileged situations” Many scientists have heard—and fantasized—about the institute’s generosity toward its researchers. But until recently HHMJ investigators belonged to distinct research groups at medical centers. Five years ago Howard Hughes Medical Institutes were typically new buildings or designated floors, each with 13,000 to 30,000 square feet and about a dozen HHMI scientists. They were set up at Johns Hopkins University; Harvard University; University of California, San Francisco’s School of Medicine; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and about 15 other schools. Those centers still exist, but they are being supplemented byTjian and up to 50 other scientists, who will join the ranks of HHMI truly on their own turf. “About three years ago, we decided to appoint investigators as individuals rather than as members of preexisting larger units,” explains Choppin. Tjian has-stayed in his lab, but HHMI pays for his salary staff, equipment, and operating expenses, as well as paying rent to the Univer sity of California for the space. When his department moves into a new building this fall, Tjian can thank HHMI for the turnkey lab he will occupy. The shift to supporting outstanding individuals is one of many recent changes that promise to spread the wealth of the HHMI. The institute has also begun to dole out money to improve undergraduate science education, support doctoral candidates, sponsor medical students who want to do research, and improve facilities and programs at research and teaching institutions. The new largess is quite a change for an institute that in the past has had as little as $4.7 million annually at its disposal for medical research. HHMI was founded in 1953 by its namesake as a medical research institute. For years, critics argued that the institute was little more than a tax dodge, and the Internal Revenue Service wanted to classify the organization as a private foundation. The distinction is important. According to the tax code, a medical research organization must employ scientists and provide them with lab and equipment to work in conjunction with hospitals, not simply provide grants. In return, it is tax-exempt and must spend only 3.5% of its net worth each year, 1.5% less than foundations, most of which must pay taxes. Hughes died in 1976 without leaving instructions about a successor. It took a Delaware court seven years to decide to put a nine-member board in charge. That board immediately sold. its sole asset, Hughes Aircraft Co., for $5.2 billion to General Motors ($2.7 billion cash and 50 million shares of GM stock for a minimum of $60 a share in December 1989). It also elected Donald S. Fredrickson, former director of the National Institutes of Health, as president. But its troubles were not over. In June 1987, Fredrickson was forced to resign in the wake of questions about his management of the institute, including allegations that his wife had meddled in HHMI affairs (The Scientist, June 1, 1987, page 2; and June 29, 1987, page 1). Also that year, HHMI agreed to pay the IRS a $35 million penalty and promised that during the next 10 years it would spend $500 million above the required 3.5%, or about $50 million more a year. That money could be used to finance educational grants and fellowships for independent researchers. Throughout its history, HHMI has maintained a “Don’t call us. we’ll call you” approach. Moreover, it does not give out research grants. The bulk of Hughes money—$230 million in 1989—is spent for “in-house”’ research in five targeted areas: cell biology, structural biology, genetics, immunology, and neuroscience. Most of the 1,600 HHMI employees work with the 197 HHMI investigators dispersed over 35 universities, hospitals, and academic medical centers. Among them are three Nobelists and 18 members of the National Academy of Sciences. By 1992, HHMI hopes to expand that network to 230 investigators and 2,500 employees. At Berkeley, Tjian is assured of at least seven years of HHMI support. HHMI also appoints assistant investigators for three years and associate investigators for five years and renews the appointment based on progress made during that time. Each year, investigators present their work to other Hughes investigators and scientific reviewers and external advisers. Site visits occur every four or five years, with ad hoc outside advisers taking part. “What they expect is absolutely outstanding performance,” says Robert J. Lefkowitz, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and an HHMI scientist since 1976. Those who fail to meet that standard lose their HHMI status, but are guaranteed a spot back on their home university’s faculty. They generally also have a year or two to prepare applications for other sources of external funding. Like other research organizations, HHMI has become increasingly concerned with nurturing young scientists. It plans to increase the number of assistant and associate investigatorsiots, although not at the expense of appointing more senior people. Toward that end, it broke with tradition last year and solicited nominations from universities. Previously, the institute relied on its advisory boards and the institutions where HHMI units were based to identify new talent. In addition, since 1987 HHMI has offered 60 doctoral fellowships per year to full-time graduate students in biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology and regulation, developmental biology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, physiology, structural biology of -macromolecules, and virology. Fellowships last three to five years and are available to seniors or college graduates with less than a year of postbaccalaureate study in biology. The awards are coveted by some of the top students in biomedicine. Last year, with only one month’s notice, 1,500 students applied for 60 awards. “You look at these students and what they have done, and they could be going for tenure at the assistant professor level,” says Joseph G. Perpich, vice president for grants and special programs. The 12-month stipend is open to foreign students as well, and U.S citizens may use it for research abroad. The award is worth $12,300 plus a $10,700 “cost-of-education” allowance, of which $1,700 must be used for direct benefit of the fellow (such as for health insurance, books, supplies, computer-related expenses, or travel). Fellows are exempted from paying tuition and fees and cannot accept private employment or another fellowship or be a consultant. Choppin predicts that HHMI will be supporting about 500 graduate students by 1992, 300 through this program and the rest as research assistants employed in HHMI laboratories. But HHMI’s interests don’t stop at the graduate level. “There’s always been that desire to build the next generation of scientists, the people who will carry on the revolution in biology,” says Perpich. In 1987 it launched an Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Initiative, soliciting proposals from 99 private four-year and historically black colleges and awarding 44 of them some $30 million. Last year it focused more on research universities and awarded $61 million to 51 universities. The schools were selected because they had the best track records for turning out science majors who pursued medical or doctoral degrees. according to data compiled from the Association of American Medical Colleges and federal agencies. As a prelude to involvement with precollege science education, HHMI has commissioned a National Research Council study to determine where it might have the most effect. More awards are planned for 1991. Hughes is also trying to encourage more physicians to become research scientists. HHMI has spared little expense to set up the Research Scholars Program in conjunction with NIH. It spent more than $12 million renovating a convent for use as housing and classrooms for 48 medical students. So far, 129 second- and third-year students from 49 U.S. medical schools have experienced research firsthand under the mentorship of NIH scientists and with paychecks from HHMI. This year the institute also offered $20,000 fellowships for medical students to spend a year working full-time in a laboratory. The Medical Student Research Training Fellowships provide for living expenses, research costs, and an institutional allowance. HHMI plans to support up to 60 students a year. In addition, beginning in 1991 HHMI will support 25 young physicians for three years while they do research full-time. But for all it does, there is touch that HHMI cannot do. “Most people don’t understand the difference between us and the foundations,” says Choppin. “The amount of money we. can spend in the grant-making mode is limited.” Since HHMI spends so much on its own scientists, the trustees decided the grants should fund education, not research. Thus far, it funds no programs directly for kindergarten through 12th grade, and no public education efforts. It also does not provide endowed support, nor does it sponsor conferences, books, treatises, or international programs.

Hughes Medical Institute Spreads Its Riches Far And Wide

The Scientist Staff

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of