Optimism Prevails As New Chief Completes Move To Salk Institute

Seven months after he was hired as president of the Salk Institute, Thomas Pollard has finally settled in at the modernist scientific citadel with its legendary view of the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Jim Cox/The Salk Inst. FOCUSED MISSION: Thomas Pollard’s mandates are to bolster the endowment and improve scientific leadership. Pollard officially began in his post at the San Diego laboratory on July 1. After months of commuting, the scientist has finally moved from Baltimore, where he was chairman of the department of cell biology and anatomy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. By May, Pollard's laboratory will complete its move to Salk, and the 54-year-old cell biologist will set forth on a course that is both new and vaguely familiar. He plans to continue his longtime research into the molecular basis of cell movement, but he also has assumed new duties as a chief administrator, scientific leader, and fund-raise Today, scientists at the elite, nonprofit research lab seem cautiously optimistic about Pollard-although they note the new president has taken little action so far. Pollard says for the time being, he wants to learn more about the research programs at Salk and how the faculty members interact with each other. "If some reorientation takes place, it will be by evolution rather than revolution," he states. Pollard spent the past 19 years at Johns Hopkins (and previously was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School), but he was born and raised in Pasadena, Calif., and received his undergraduate degree at Pomona College. He says the move to San Diego is like returning home. That may be so, but it can't be all that reassuring to move into a house with a revolving door. Several individuals have passed through the top post at the Salk Institute in recent years as the research center grappled with issues surrounding the president's role. The last person to occupy the job was Nobel laureate Francis Crick. He stepped down for health reasons on Sept. 1, 1995, after serving just 10 months at the helm. Crick was preceded by Brian E. Henderson, who returned to the University of Southern California (USC) less than 20 months after he was hired from the Kenneth Norris, Jr. Comprehensive Cancer Center at USC. Henderson, in turn, was preceded by Renato Dulbecco, another Nobel laureate. Dulbecco assumed office in 1988, when longtime president Frederic de Hoffman stepped down after 18 years. Dulbecco had somewhat reluctantly agreed to serve as an interim president until the institute could hire a new leader. But he ended up staying in the job for five years after two recruitment efforts failed. Yet Pollard seems sanguine as he discusses the challenges facing him at the independent research institute, which has 700 employees, including 50 principal investigators. "I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal moving here," he says simply. Pollard's approachable manner and the promise of new management have struck an encouraging chord for many Salk scientists. "There's a sense of optimism right now, and also a sense that we haven't wasted these four years," comments Inder Verma, a senior scientist and trustee. "We have actually learned in the process." David R. Schubert, a developmental neurobiologist, notes that Pollard is still untested in his new role, but "from my point of view, everything looks okay and he seems like a reasonable guy." Photo: Marc Lieberman/The Salk Inst. OPTIMISTIC: Many Salk scientists are hopeful about the new regime, notes molecular biologist Tony Hunter. Could it be the Salk Institute has finally found its leader? "Obviously, it's still early," says Tony Hunter, a professor of molecular biology at the institute's Molecular Biology and Virology Laboratory. However, he adds, "I think we're all hopeful." The hopes vested in Pollard are focused chiefly in two areas. First, the institute must dramatically shore up its $35 million endowment, which tends to hamstring spending on research. Pollard says the endowment "should probably be something more like $150 million." In comparison, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., with 35 principal investigators, has an endowment of roughly $100 million; the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., with 18 principal investigators, has one of about $198 million; and the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., with 60 principal investigators, boasts an endowment of $338 million (J. Cohen, Science, 273:1036-7,1996). Photo: Marc Lieberman/The Salk Inst. SCIENTIFIC LEADERSHIP: Having a first-rate researcher at the helm was an important consideration for Salk trustees, says Inder Verma. Second, Salk insiders hope Pollard can satisfy the faculty's yearning for the sort of scientific leadership that borders on prescience. Since 1988, when de Hoffman stepped down, many senior researchers at Salk insisted that the institute's top job should go to a scientific superstar. "We felt that the currency of the Salk Institute is science, that we needed a scientist in order to project the vision of the institute," Verma explains. Pollard may not quite qualify as a household name, but he is respected in the field of cell biology. In fact, Pollard says, he owes his new job in part to an advisory group of premier scientists who urged the institute to expand its work in cell biology. The eight-member group, which includes microbiologist J. Michael Bishop of the University of California, San Francisco, and Sir Aaron Klug, director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom, also guided the search committee to Pollard. Apart from his scientific expertise (he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences), Pollard acquired considerable experience working on science policy issues. He is chairman of the public science policy committee for the Biophysical Society and chairman of the National Research Council's Commission on Life Sciences. Among other things, the commission appoints scientists to prepare reports on such issues as the biological effects of electromagnetic fields and the use of DNA in the courtroom. Pollard has never previously held a job at the helm of a major biomedical research laboratory. But he is undaunted by the administrative responsibilities, noting that he led a restructuring of the first-year medical curriculum at Johns Hopkins about five years ago. Yet as one Salk researcher, speaking on condition of anonymity, observes, "It is a quantitative leap from serving as chairman of a department to supervising a bunch of prima donnas at the Salk Institute." The scientist notes that some of the most exasperating antics occurred when some senior researchers sought to expand or remodel their laboratories at Salk. Whether prima donnas at the Salk Institute are much different from varieties here is a question that perhaps only Pollard can answer. In any case, he seems eager to meet the challenge. "This is a small, high-powered research institute-much different than a huge medical center, which is where I've been working at Johns Hopkins," Pollard concedes. But he says his increased administrative duties are "not unmanageable," and the institute's 50 principal investigators are comparable to the number in a large academic department. "The mission is much more focused here than it was at Johns Hopkins, where there was patient care and medical and graduate education and research all bundled together in an interesting way," he adds. "Here the focus is almost entirely on research, with an important component of graduate education, which we do in collaboration with UCSD [the University of California, San Diego]." Even before Pollard was recruited, Hunter reports, the senior faculty had begun to recruit scientists who specialize in cell biology, which was viewed as an important field for future research. "When we heard Tom was going to come, we put everything on hold because he is a cell biologist and he undoubtedly has strong ideas on what should be done," Hunter recalls. Pollard says he hopes to augment the work done so far by drafting a strategic plan for scientific research at Salk for the next five to 10 years. He plans to expand Salk's emphasis on cell biology and biophysics. He explains that both fields "are going to be important in advances of biomedical knowledge in the next decade. It's the next step after the discovery of new molecules" born of research like the Human Genome Project. For an institution of its size, the Salk Institute already has achieved a remarkable record of scientific excellence despite a more or less perpetual quest for outside funding. The institute is frequently hailed as one of the top centers in the world for research in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genetics. And, according to Pollard, its work in plant genetics and biology is near the top. Photo: Marc Lieberman/The Salk Inst. ENDOWMENT BUILDING: Salk chairman Frederick Rentschler hopes to end the institute’s perennial funding problems. Yet many insiders lament that funding remains a perennial problem. Federal funding from the National Institutes of Health and other sources accounts for about 70 percent of the institute's $50 million annual budget; the remaining amount is contributed by private foundations and individual donors. "Where we have really done well is covering our expenses on a year-to-year basis," comments Frederick B. Rentschler, chairman of the institute's 32-member board of trustees. "What we really need now is to get to the endowment." Rentschler says the institute plans to hire a vice president for external affairs who will help administer fund-raising efforts. But the board has shelved the idea of hiring a chief operating officer to assist the president. Crick had experimented with such an arrangement during his tenure as president, but Pollard is confident of his ability to administer the institute himself. In addition, Rentschler notes, board members will likely become more active in the institute's affairs, especially in the area of fund-raising. "From my perspective, the money flowing through the laboratories is quite impressive," Pollard states. "The faculty are very resourceful when it comes to competing nationally for research grants. And our development group does a fantastic job of raising money from private foundations and private individuals." While the institute raised about $15 million last year from foundations and individuals, he notes that "little of it was put into the bank." Photo: Richard Howard Photography A ‘QUICK STUDY’: Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) director John Burris praises the new Salk president’s work on a recent MBL capital campaign. Pollard acknowledges that he has relatively little experience in fund-raising, except in his role as a trustee of the Marine Biological Laboratory, an independent biomedical research center in Woods Hole, Mass. As a trustee, Pollard worked with the lab's director, John Burris, on a recent capital campaign. Burris, who also worked with Pollard at the National Research Council, describes the new Salk president as "an incredibly quick study. He's very conscious of the importance of talking to individuals in a way in which they can understand. . . . It makes him very good at fund-raising." Pollard remarks: "My experience in the last five months in working with our board of trustees and potential donors is not unlike teaching medical students. You have to be very clear about what the message is, and articulate and persuasive and enthusiastic." "As I have told him," Burris adds, "I think he'll spend a lot of time doing things that we didn't get our Ph.D.'s in. You have to learn about retirement benefits and post-retirement benefits and accounting rules-all sorts of things they don't teach you in graduate school." Bruce V. Bigelow is a reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune and a freelance science writer.

Optimism Prevails As New Chief Completes Move To Salk Institute

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