But success brought problems as well as accolades. First Langston had to find space to carry out his research; then his initial round of grants ran out, and he began to worry about the precarious nature of his funding. So he took the bold step of striking out on his, own. He left the faculty of Stanford University, severed his ties with the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and, in April, started his own organization, the California Foundation for Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders, to support his research.
Although it's too soon to tell if the foundation will survive and prosper, Langston sees it as a model for other scientists whose research outgrows the ability of their institutions to support it—a problem he suspects will increasingly crop up in rapidly expanding fields such as neuroscience.
This problem was outlined last year by David H. Cohen, vice president for research at ...
