Rensselaer provost's plan for FASEB

Like all previous leaders of the Federation for American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB), Robert Palazzo will steer the organization as it advocates for biomedical research - including addressing the growing concerns that years of flat NIH funding are suffocating science. Palazzo's colleagues said they believed he was up to the job. "I was happy to hear about the FASEB presidency because [Palazzo], of all the people I've known, is a really strong voice on Capital Hill in trying to get the NIH budget back to where he thinks it should be," said Conly Rieder of the New York State Department of Health in Albany, NY, a long-time research collaborator. "He's not willing to settle for anything less than what scientists need."A cell biologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, Robert Palazzo took over July 1 as president of FASEB. Palazzo has spent more than two decades studying the molecular basis of cell division. He first described a cell-free system for studying centriole duplication, a step in mitosis that had never been studied in isolation. The resulting paper, published in Science in 1992, was cited 63 timesHe joined the faculty of Rensselaer in 2002, serving as the director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and was appointed provost of the university on July 1. He has also been a vocal advocate for research funding since 1989, when he grew increasingly concerned about the limited funds for young investigators."He's absolutely passionate about government policies affecting biomedical research," said Leo Furcht, past president of FASEB. "I would say he's particularly strong in his advocacy for funding for NIH and specifically what FASEB cares deeply about, which is investigator-initiated peer reviewed grants." "He'll work tirelessly on this in Washington, and I honestly believe we couldn't have a better leader," he added.Palazzo told The Scientist that many challenges lie ahead for FASEB and the research community as a whole, including the lack of NIH funds for research, public mistrust of science, and the need to enhance science education, both in grades K-12 and at the college level. He noted that the average age of a researcher getting his or her first independent research grant (RO1) is 42. "That's a staggering statistic," he said.Palazzo stressed the need to teach students about ethics, particularly in light of recent conflict-of-interest scandals. "We cannot afford to have doubt [in science]," he said. "Scientists and engineers in industry and academia must "remain ever vigilant in defending the reputation of science and its endeavors." In his new administrative duties, Palazzo said he hopes to galvanize researchers to speak out about the benefits basic science offers society. "Everyone has to be involved, by writing letters to Congress and giving lectures to the public, to demystify science," he said.But his primary concern in his FASEB post is likely to be budgetary. This year, the organization asked for $30.8 billion for Fiscal 2008, along with increased NIH funding over the next three years to overcome inflationary losses. The President's Budget recommendation was $28.858 billion for 2008. FASEB recommended $30 billion for the Fiscal 2007 budget, and the President's recommendation was $28.4 billion. It recommended $30.07 billion for Fiscal 2006; the NIH only received $28.6 billion. Palazzo said that, adjusting for inflation, NIH is funding at levels at least 12% below levels from 2003. "Our capability in terms of innovation is really what keeps the U.S. in the lead," he said. "That innovation is a direct result of our basic research in science. If that erodes, which I am very concerned that it may well be eroding, the impact is long and serious."Palazzo's first graduate student, Jacalyn Vogel of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, told The Scientist that Palazzo's appointments to FASEB and Rensselaer are "not surprising." He is "amazingly driven and extremely good at getting people motivated about science," she said. "And I think that's why his career has evolved the way it has." She worked with Palazzo in determining the biochemical components of centrosomes and tracking how they changed as they matured during meiosis. Vogel, Rieder and Palazzo coauthored a 1997 paper in the Journal of Cell Biology, cited 81 times. "In a sense he was ahead of his time. He was giving me a proteomics project before people were really doing proteomics," Vogel said."He's got great hands in the lab, and good ideas too," said Roger Sloboda, of Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, who taught a summer physiology course with Palazzo at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., in the early 90s. "Bob picked up the [surf clam] system and realized its advantages for looking at centrosomes, and understanding their biochemistry and assembly properties. He took it and ran with it." Last year, Palazzo and colleagues from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center identified five RNAs they called cnRNAs that are intimately associated with centrosomes in surf clam oocytes, supporting the long-held hypothesis that the centrosome originated from endosymbiotic evolution, similar to other organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts. The paper was published in June 2006 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and cited 3 times.He also co-authored an editorial in The FASEB Journal around the same time, praising new initiatives aimed at young scientists, such as the "Pathways to Independence Grant." But he and co-author Howard Garrison cautioned that these programs should not come at the expense of funding for R01 grants. "Scientific opportunities have continued to expand, but funding opportunities at NIH have not," they wrote. "This situation is especially hard on investigators beginning their research careers."Initiatives taken by NIH that are aimed at young investigators have not sufficiently offset the negative impact of diminished funds on these researchers, Furcht said. "Bob knows this and will strongly push publicly and in Congress and with NIH on increasing those expenditures." Sloboda said Palazzo will do well in his new roles. "He's got great scientific judgment. He knows how to handle people, and he's honest and firm," he said. Links within this article:Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology http://www.faseb.org/T. Agres, "Flat NIH funding again in '08," The Scientist, February 6, 2007 http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/49077/A. B. Jaffe, "Double research funding? Be careful," The Scientist, July 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/7/1/31/1Conly Rieder http://www.wadsworth.org/bms/SCBlinks/web_mit2/HOME.HTMRobert Palazzo http://biology.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=19R. E. Palazzo, et al., "Centriole duplication in lysates of Spisula-solidissima oocytes," Science, April 10, 1992. http://www.the-scientist.com/pubmed/1566068Palazzo's political background http://www.ascb.org/index.cfm?navid=110&id=1298&tcode=nws3A. McCook, "Conflicts of interest at Federal agencies," The Scientist, July 24, 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/24056/FASEB budget request 2008 http://opa.faseb.org/pages/Advocacy/fedbudget.htmT. Agres, "NIH held to flat funding in '07," The Scientist, Feb. 7, 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23092/K. Grens, "An economic gamble," The Scientist, July 2007. http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/7/1/28/1/Jacalyn Vogel http://biology.mcgill.ca/faculty/vogel/J. M. Vogel et al., "Centrosomes isolated from Spisula solidissima oocytes contain rings and an unusual stoichiometric ratio of alpha/beta tubulin," J Cell Biology, April 7, 1997. http://www.the-scientist.com/pubmed/9105047Roger Sloboda http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mcb/faculty/sloboda.htmlF. D. Bushman, "Evolutionary teamwork," The Scientist, May 10, 2004. http://www.the-scientist.com/2004/5/10/33/1/M. C. Alliegro, et al., "Centrosome-associated RNA in surf clam oocytes," Proc Nat Acad Sci, June 13, 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/pubmed/16754862H. H. Garrison, "What's happening to the new investigator?" The FASEB Journal, July 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/pubmed/16816102

Rensselaer provost's plan for FASEB

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