Rockefeller University Fellowships Encourage Diversity

When he assumes the presidency of the Rockefeller University next month, molecular biologist David Baltimore will be faced with the task of assessing the university's programs in the biomedical and related behavioral and physical sciences. One of the areas targeted for evaluation by Baltimore is the University Fellows Program, in which exceptional young scientists are recruited to head their own research groups and are given the title of assistant professor at the university. The program gives these scientists funding to pursue ground-breaking research "in fields not already represented at the university," according to Rodney W. Nichols, executive vice president at Rockefeller. The resulting "intellectual diversification" is one of the program's main objectives, Nichols says. Young investigators selected as University Fellows are offered a unique opportunity at Rockefeller, an institution whose administrative structure is organized around laboratories rather than academic departments. Because they are given their own labs, the fellows do not have to seek out an existing lab whose work parallels their research interests, says molecular cell biologist David J.L. Luck, Alfred E. Mirsky Professor at Rockefeller, who co-chairs the committee of senior scientists that selects University Fellows. Before the institution of this program, Luck says, "there was no real way to establish an independent lab" with a young researcher at the helm. Giving the fellows their own labs, Nichols says, means that "usually, we have to renovate the laboratory space" -- generally about 800 square feet -- to meet their needs. The fellows are given a salary plus support for a technician and a postdoctoral associate. The costs of some lab equipment and supplies are also covered by the fellowships, which are renewable for up to five years. Other equipment and facilities are shared among several researchers. The program frees the young scientists from having to apply for outside funding support before they can begin their work; such freedom enables them to pursue the early stages of a cutting-edge research project that a granting agency may not consider "safe" enough to support. The initial financial support provided by the university gives the fellows "a good dowry to get started," Nichols says. "As soon as they're ready to do so, they'll start to get some outside support, usually from the federal government," he says; by the time the fellowship is over, "they have developed a body of research on their own that they can then use" to obtain funding from sources outside the university. The University Fellows Program at Rockefeller has a two-phased history. The program was originally established in the early 1970s, when Frederick Seitz was president of the university. Seitz was aware of the importance of bringing in young faculty from outside the university so that the institution "would not get inbred," Nichols says. For several years during the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a respite in aggressive recruiting for the University Fellows program; during that time, "the university was in a different mode," according to Nichols. "We were starting some new groups," he says, a goal that required most of Rockefeller's resources. But five years ago, under the direction of university president Joshua Lederberg, a major effort to resume the program was undertaken. At present, there are 11 University Fellows at Rockefeller. Although most of these young investigators come from outside the university, it is "possible to appoint such fellows internally," says Luck. The committee of senior scientists that selects the University Fellows, co-chaired by Luck and James E. Darnell, Jr., Vincent Astor Professor at the university who has recently been appointed vice president for academic affairs, conducts intensive international searches for talented young investigators. Although "we have never advertised," and there is no formal application to the program, Luck says, "a few people, knowing about the program, have written to us," asking that they be considered as potential fellows. The University Fellows Program is funded with "money that we've raised almost entirely privately in the name of the university," Nichols says. In the mid-1970s, the late Andre Meyer, of the Wall Street brokerage firm Lazard Freres, donated more than $1 million to endow the program. After Meyer's death, Nichols says, "we got a few hundred thousand dollars from his estate." An additional $1 million was given to the program by the Richard King Mellon Foundation of Pittsburgh. "We used this as leverage to get a number of smaller grants" from other sources, Nichols says. In the late 1980s, the endowment was supplemented with a grant from the Miami-based Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust of "about $5 million over five years," Nichols says, as well as some "other grants from small foundations in New York City and here." Nine fellows are now on campus: Frederick R. Cross received his Ph.D. from Rockefeller in 1984 and was a postdoctoral fellow in genetics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle from 1985 to 1989. He returned to Rockefeller in July 1989 as a University Fellow. He has been investigating the control of cell division in genetic studies involving yeast, focusing on a protein known as alpha factor. Titia de Lange began a postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel laureate Harold E. Varmus in the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1985. She came to Rockefeller in February 1990 as a University Fellow. Her research focuses on the structural features of the mammalian chromosome. Claude Desplan was a postdoctoral fellow at the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1987 before coming to Rockefeller as a University Fellow in October 1987; he is also assistant investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is investigating the function of a segment of genetic material called the homeobox, which plays an important role in development. Stephen DiNardo did postdoctoral research from 1984 to 1988 in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. He came to Rockefeller as a University Fellow in July 1988. His research focuses on an understanding, at the molecular level, of patterns of cell fate during development. Jan Geliebter held a National Cancer Institute training fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1985 to 1988. He came to Rockefeller in January 1988 as a University Fellow; he is also assistant investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is investigating the molecular mechanisms of recombination in transplantation genes and in other mammalian multigene families. Nathaniel Heintz did postdoctoral work at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis before coming to Rockefeller as an assistant professor in 1983. In 1987, he was named a University Fellow and appointed associate professor. He is an associate investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focuses on the molecular events underlying the regulation of gene expression in mammalian cells during the cell cycle and in the developing mouse cerebellum. Maria M. Konarska became a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Cancer Research in 1987. She came to Rockefeller in July 1989 as a University Fellow. Her research focuses on the replication and splicing of RNA. John Kuriyan spent a postdoctoral year at Harvard University before coming to Rockefeller as a University Fellow in 1987. His research is aimed at developing and applying theoretical and experimental methods for exploring the relationship between protein structure and function. Michel C. Nussenzweig earned a Ph.D. in immunology from Rockefeller in 1981. After earning his M.D., he worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in genetics at Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute associate. He returned to Rockefeller in 1989 as a University Fellow. Working with transgenic mice, he is exploring the regulation of specific genes that govern antibody production and investigating the relationship between gene function and the carcinogenic process. Two additional University fellows are scheduled to arrive in the fall: Stephen Burley is currently working at the chemistry department at Harvard and as a research resident in internal medicine and protein crystallography in the department of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Thomas Sakmar is a research associate in the departments of biology and chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yet another important source of support for many of the fellows comes from the Bethesda, Md.-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). If the young scientists meet several criteria -- "partly based on the field, and partly a matter of timing," according to Nichols -- the university nominates them to be assistant HHMI investigators. Under this arrangement, "much of their support is provided by HHMI," says Nichols, and "the university has some funding released to spend on other young investigators." At present, six of the University Fellows are supported by HHMI. Nathaniel Heintz is one University Fellow who has benefited from HHMI support. Heintz, 38, came from inside the university; he was working at the assistant professor level before he became a University Fellow three years ago, and has since been appointed associate professor at Rockefeller. The University Fellowship, as well as the appointment to HHMI, Heintz says, has "opened an entirely new area of research" for him. In addition to his ongoing research into the control of gene expression during the cell cycle, with his expanded resources he is also able to investigate molecular biological approaches to the study of the mammalian brain, particularly the cerebellum. Over the past 2 1/2 years, he says, he has been conducting background studies related to his cerebellum investigation, "generating the tools with which we can start" the next stage of research. Heintz says without the backing of HHMI and the University Fellows program, "it would be very difficult to justify to a funding agency" that his work merits support, because of its exploratory nature. "Almost certainly I wouldn't have gotten the funding" from the National Institutes of Health to conduct such research, he says. "It's very unusual for a young investigator to spend all of your time pursuing what you believe are the important issues in science," Heintz says. "It's a luxury that junior faculty don't have. It's extremely significant that we've been given that luxury." Whether the program will continue into the 1990s is "going to be the call of the [new] president of the university," Nichols says. Yet from all indications, Rockefeller administrators say, it seems as if the fellowship will have no trouble winning Baltimore's approval. The president-designate, Nichols says, "has been extremely enthusiastic about this program," and the committee is continuing its recruitment and interviewing of potential new fellows. The university community, he says, is anticipating that the new leader will share the view that the program "is very important for science in general, and it's very important for young scientists." For more information about the University Fellows Program, contact Darnell at the Rockefeller University, 1230 York Ave., New York, N.Y. 10021; (212) 570-8000.

Rockefeller University Fellowships Encourage Diversity

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