Persons who support Power of Research

Mario R. Capecchi is Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Capecchi has authored many scientific papers which have earned him numerous research awards. In 2007 he earned the Nobel Price in Physiology and Medicine for his discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.His ongoing research interest centers on the analysis of mice with mutations in genes required for embryonic development and mammalian diversity.

1) Why did you become a scientist?

Because I enjoy doing science. You are solving a puzzle every day. What we work on continually changes.

2) Which is the most memorable and relevant experience you made in your scientific life?

The most exciting moment is always when you first find something entirely new and unexpected – the Eureka Moment

3) What message do you want to give young people all over Europe to take with them?

That science is a marvellous vocation. It is always exciting. It is always changing and right now is a great time to do science because of the new tools that are now available that allow you to answer questions that were not answerable even a few years ago.

4) Why do you think that “Power of Research” is worth your support?

Power of Research is important because it engages young minds. Science is engagement, engagement of the mind and the hands (experiments).

Haldar, M., M. Hedberg, M. Hockin and M.R. Capecchi (2009) A CreER based random induction strategy for modeling translocation-associated sarcomas in mice. Cancer Res. 15:69(8):3657-64.

Jones, K. B., V. Piombo, C. Searby, G. Kurringer, B. Yang, F. Grabellus, P. Roughley, J. Morcuende, J. Buckwalter, M. R. Capecchi, A. Vortkamp and V. C. Sheffield (2010). A mouse model of osteochondromagenesis from clonal inactivation of Ext1 in chondroytes. PNAS 107(5):2054-9.

Xue, H., S. Wu, S.T. Papadeau, S. Spusta, A.M. Swistowska, C.C. MacArthur, M.P. Mattson, N. J. Maragakis, M.R. Capecchi, M.S. Rao, S. Zeng and Y. Liu. (2009) A targeted neuroglial reporter line generated by homologous recombination in human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cell 27(8): 1836-46

Makki, N. and M. R. Capecchi (2010). Hoxa1 linage-tracing indictes a direct role for Hoxa1 in development of the inner ear, the heart and the third rhombomere. Dev. Biol. 341:499-509.

Chen, S.-K., P. Tvrdik, E. Peden, S. Cho, S. Wu, G. Spangrude and M.R. Capecchi (2010). Hematopoietic Origin of Pathological Grooming in Hoxb8 Mutant Mice. Cell 141:775-785.

Sir Richard Roberts is the Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, Beverly, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield in Organic Chemistry and then moved to Harvard University in 1969 to work with Professor J.L. Strominger. In 1972 he moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under Dr. J.D. Watson eventually becoming Assistant Director. He first worked on the newly discovered Type II restriction enzymes in 1972 and subsequently 100 such enzymes were identified and characterized by his group. Work on Adenovirus-2 led to the discovery of split genes and mRNA splicing in 1977 and he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993. The 35,937 nucleotide DNA sequence of the Adenovirus-2 genome was completed in 1985, this was assisted in both assembly and analysis by key computer programs which were first written by his group. Computer methods for sequence analysis continues to be a major focus of his work, at present he is involved in a new initiative called COMBREX, which is aimed at connecting computational biologists who are making functional predictions for bacterial genes with biochemists who will test those functions experimentally. Other major research achievements have included collaborative research projects with Dr. Xiaodong Cheng in elucidation of the crystal structure of the HhaI methyltransferase both alone and in complex with DNA, which led to the discovery of base flipping

1) Why did you become a scientist?

I fell in love with chemistry when I was very young and began making fireworks and explosives. From there I studied chemistry at the University of Sheffield getting a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. During that time I heard about molecular biology and made that my career of choice.

2) Which is the most memorable and relevant experience you made in your scientific life?

In 1976 my postdoc, Richard Gelinas, and I obtained some very unexpected results when trying to map a promoter on Adenovirus-2. It soon became clear – to us at least – that the structure of mRNAs in Adenovirus-2 were quite different from those in bacteriophages. This led to a very exciting year of experiments culminating in 1977 with an explicit demonstration that adenoviral genes were split into pieces and did not correspond to simple contiguous stretches of DNA sequence that were then considered the universal structure of genes.

3) What message do you want to give young people all over Europe to take with them?

Science is great fun and can be an extremely rewarding career choice. In biology in particular there are many discoveries awaiting the clever researcher as our knowledge of how life works is still very meagre. The years ahead will be filled with fascinating new findings and myriad opportunities for innovation. The 21st century really will be the century of biology.

4) Why do you think that “Power of Research” is worth your support?

Science is often taught rather badly in schools and an awful lot of students cannot find good answers to their natural curiosity about the world around them. Games can provide a very useful way of capturing a student’s imagination and helping to introduce scientific concepts. Most young people love games and science games can be just as much fun as conventional video games. When I was young I loved mathematical logic games – I still do!

Gelinas, R.E. and Roberts, R.J. (1977) One predominant 5'-undecanucleotide in adenovirus 2 late messenger RNAs. Cell 11: 533-544.

Chow, L.T., Gelinas, R.E., Broker, T.R. and Roberts, R.J. (1977) An amazing sequence arrangement at the 5' ends of adenovirus 2 messenger RNA. Cell 12: 1-8.

Cheng, X., Kumar, S., Posfai, J., Pflugrath, J.W. and Roberts, R.J. (1993) Crystal structure of the HhaI methylase complexed with S-adenosyl methionine. Cell 74: 299-307.

Roberts, R.J., Akusjarvi, G., Alestrom, P., Gelinas, R.E., Gingeras, T.R., Sciaky D. and Pettersson, U. (1986) A consensus sequence for the adenovirus-2 genome. in Adenovirus DNA. The Viral Genome and Its Expression, ed. W. Doerfler, Martinus Nijhoff, Boston, Mass. pp. 1-51.

Roberts, R.J., Vincze, T., Posfai, J., Macelis, D. (2010) REBASE – a database for DNA restriction and modification: enzymes, genes and genomes. Nucleic Acids Research 38: D234-D236.

Professor Craig C. Mello received his B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from the Brown University in 1982, and his Ph.D. from the Harvard University in 1990. From 1990 to 1994 he conducted postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, WA. He has been a member of the University of Massachusetts Medical School faculty since 1995, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator since 2000. Professor Mello has authored numerous scientific publications and has his pioneering research on RNAi, in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Fire. Both have been recognized with numerous awards culminating with the prestigious 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

1) Why did you become a scientist?

Because I’m curious about the natural world. Where did the universe come from? How do living things live and evolve? My dad was a paleontologist with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, so as a child I was immersed in the concept of deep time, the history of the earth and of life. I still love fossils and geology, but was seduced by molecular biology. The concept that the genetic code (and indeed genomes) are living fossils captivated me while I was in high school. DNA sequencing has made this field of evolutionary genomics extremely exciting. I’m still hooked!

2) Which is the most memorable and relevant experience you made in your scientific life?

The discovery that the machinery (proteins) involved in RNAi is conserved among eukaryotes. The realization that RNAi is the Google (search engine) of the cell, and that living things entered the information age billions of years ago. Realizing that RNA can encode heritable information.

3) What message do you want to give young people all over Europe to take with them?

Science is really cool and lots of fun to do!

4) Why do you think that “Power of Research” is worth your support?

Research is incredibly fun because you never know what you will discover. Unfortunately, the way science is taught in school is more of a history class. You learn about how things were discovered, you rarely get a chance to discover something new yourself. In short science education almost never involves actually doing real science. I hope this game will help kids experience the incredible excitement of actually being a scientist.

Phillip A. Sharp is Institute Professor (highest academic rank) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. His research interests have centered on the molecular biology of gene expression relevant to cancer and the mechanisms of RNA splicing. His landmark work in 1977 provided one of the first indications of "discontinuous genes" in mammalian cells. The discovery fundamentally changed scientists' understanding of gene structure and earned Dr. Sharp the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. His lab has now turned its attention to understanding how RNA molecules act as switches to turn genes on and off (RNA interference), a process that could potentially generate a new class of therapeutics. Dr. Sharp has authored over 370 scientific papers. His work has earned him numerous cancer research awards and presidential and national scientific board appointments.

1. Seila, A.C., Calabrese, J.M., Levine, S.S., Yeo, G.W., Rahl, B., Young, R.A., and Sharp P.A. Divergent transcription from active promoters. Science 322, 1849-1851 (2008). NIHMSID 94606

2. Grishok, A., Hoersch, S., and Sharp, P.A. RNAi component Rde-4 and chromatin factors Zfp-1 and Lin-35 repress endogenous siRNA target genes implicated and stress response and germline function. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 20386-20391 (2008). PMCID 2629315

3. Sharp, P.A. The Centrality of RNA (Leading Edge Essay). Cell 136, 577-580 (2009).

4. Kleppner D.,and Sharp, P.A. Research data in the digital age. Science 325, 368 (2009).

5. Seila, A.C., Core, L.J., Lis, J.. and Sharp, P.A. Divergent transcription: A new feature of active promoters. Cell Cycle (review article) 16, 2557-2564 (2009).

6. Agrawal, A., Min, D.H., Singh, N., Zhu, H., Birjiniuk, A., von Maltzahn, G., Harris, T.J., Xing, D., Woolfenden, S., Sharp, P.A., Charest, A., and Bhatia, S.N. Functional delivery of siRNA in mice using dendriworms. ACS Nano 3, 2495-2504 (2009). NIHMSID 138798

Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist and member of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, since the early 1970´s. The main focus of her work involved a specific group of viruses known as retroviruses and was based on the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS. In 2008, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with her former boss Luc Montagnier, for their discovery of HIV. She has co-authored over 200 scientific publications, has participated in over 250 international conferences, and has trained many young researchers. Barré-Sinoussi has actively contributed to several scientific societies and committees at the Pasteur Institute as well as to other AIDS organisations, such as the National Agency for AIDS Research in France. She has also been implicated at an international level, notably as a consultant to the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the UN-AIDS-HIV programme.

Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS was educated at the Eton College, where he did Classics, having been advised that he was unsuited for science, and Christ Church, Oxford (Zoology). He made his PhD with Michael Fischberg, on nuclear transplantation in Xenopus. And his postdoctoral work at Cal-Tech, on bacteriophage genetics. Afterwards he moved to MRC Molecular Biology Laboratory in Cambridge (Chairman Max Perutz), subsequently becoming Head of the Cell Biology Division. In 1990 he moved to new Wellcome CRC Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology in Cambridge, and served as Chairman 1990-2001. From 2001, the Institute was renamed The Gurdon Institute. He is Chairman of the Company of Biologists from 2001 to the present.

The main directions of research have been nuclear transplantation and mechanisms of reprogramming of somatic cell nuclei, the use of Xenopus eggs and oocytes for mRNA microinjection, and hence gene overexpression and the analysis of signalling in normal development, and the use of signalling factors for the redirection of cell differentiation.

Dr Gurdon has received various recognitions including, most recently, the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Science

1) Why did I become a scientist?

I wanted to feel that my life could make some contribution to the health and welfare of humans rather than be used to accumulate enough money to live in luxury.

2) Which is the most memorable and relevant experience I made in my scientific life?

Probably the most experience for me was to see that experiments done in my early career using nuclear transplantation of somatic cell nuclei could give a normal, sexually mature animal. In other words, it is possible to fully reverse the differentiation of a specialized cell.

3) What message do I want to give young people all over Europe to take with them?

A life in Science is hard work, but your time is very flexible and you can have the satisfaction of feeling that your life has been put to really good use for the benefit of yourself and others.

4) Why do I think that "Power of Research" is worth my support?

I think it is most important to draw the attention of those who are planning their careers to the satisfaction and benefits of a life in science.

Gurdon, J.B., Elsdale, T.R., and Fischberg, M. (1958). Sexually mature individuals of Xenopus laevis from the transplantation of single somatic nuclei. Nature 182, 64-65.

Gurdon, J.B. (1962). The developmental capacity of nuclei taken from intestinal epithelium cells of feeding tadpoles. J. Embryol. exp. Morph.10, 622-640.

Gurdon, J.B., Lane, C.D., Woodland, H.R., and Marbaix, G. (1971). The use of frog eggs and oocytes for the study of messenger RNA and its translation in living cells. Nature 233, 177-182.

Dyson, S. and Gurdon, J.B. (1998). The interpretation of position in a morphogen gradient as revealed by occupancy of activin receptors. Cell 93, 557-568.

Gurdon, J.B. (2006) From nuclear transfer to nuclear reprogramming: the reversal of cell differentiation. Ann. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 22, 1-22. PMID: 16704337

Professor Josef Martin Penninger received his primary degree from the Medical School at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and a PhD from Institute of General and Experimental Pathology, at the University of Innsbruck. He then went on to complete his post doctorate studies at the Ontario Cancer Institute and the Amgen Institute in Toronto Canada. While still researching in Canada he became a full professor in the department of immunology and medical Biophysics in the University of Toronto. During his time spent in Canada he won numerous awards for contributions towards cancer research including “young leader in medicine in Canada” and “William E. Rawls Prize”. In 2002 he became the scientific and founding director of the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and is a professor of genetics at Vienna University since 2004. Since his return to Austria he has received numerous awards including the Descartes Prize – the highest EU research prize. Additionally, he has secured millions in EU funding. His main research focus includes elucidation of the basic principles of development and basic mechanisms of disease pathogenesis – with focus given to heart diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer and bone diseases.

1) Why did you become a scientist?

Because i got infected with a virus, the virus of trying to understand and the virus to ask questions. Also people around me told me that with science i would ruin my life and never find a respectable job; so i just had to try and i never looked back.

2) Which is the most memorable and relevant experience you made in your scientific life?

When I gave a lecture in Vancouver about my work on RANKL and bone loss, this woman in the first row started to cry. Then i knew that science is not just about generating new knowledge, but about improving our world - just a little bit.

3) What message do you want to give young people all over Europe to take with them?

Find something you really enjoy doing and do not listen to professionals who try to tell you what to do with your life. If you live and develop your talents, then you will do alright. And if you one day loose your jobs, at least you did something you really liked. Life and learning should be fun and knowledge is the true power of the future.

4) Why do you think that “Power of Research” is worth your support?

Because being a scientist is the coolest job one can have. Test the unknown, ask uncomfortable questions, don’t believe what you are told, and it is perfectly Ok to be different.

Professor Frank Grosveld is a distinguished molecular biologist whose research interests include the regulation and transcription genetics. After receiving a B.Sc. in Chemistry and M.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Amsterdam, he went on to complete his PhD in McGill University followed by post doctorate research positions in the University of Zurich, Amsterdam and the National Institute for Medical Research in London. He was appointed a full time position in the National Institute for Medical Research as head of the division of Gene Structure and Expression. Professor Grosveld has authored many scientific papers, participated in many conferences and supervised numerous students while holding the role as head of various departments within the Erasmus Medical Centre – including head of the research school and department of clinical genetics. His research on the control of globin gene expression has been selected as one of the top ten achievements of Medical Research Council (UK) in 20th century by H.E.R.O. (Higher Education and Research Opportunities in the U.K) He was awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1991) and the Spinozapremie (Spinoza Prize) (1995). He was selected as academy professor of Royal Netherlands, Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

Daniel St Johnston is Chairman of the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Developmental Genetics. He received his Ph.D. from the Harvard University in 1988 for his thesis titled “The structure and expression of the decapentaplegic gene in Drosphila melanogaster”. Dr. Johnston has authored many scientific papers which have earned him numerous research awards, and have elevated him to director of many important organisations such as the director of the Welcome Trust Ph.D. program in Development biology. Additionally, Prof. St. Johnston is a member/fellow of numerous professional organisations such as Royal Society and Medical Sciences.

1) Why did you become a scientist?

I became a scientist because my college tutor encouraged me to give it a try, and because I couldn't imagine find any of the alternatives nearly as interesting.

2) Which is the most memorable and relevant experience you made in your scientific life?

I have had many memorable experiences during my career, but the most exciting ones are usually when an experiment gives the opposite of the expected result and makes one realize that ones model is completely wrong. One is then free to think of lots of interesting new hypotheses and plan novel experimental approaches. One recent memorable event of this type was when a postdoc in the lab, Vincent Mirouse, made clones of a mutant that we expected to disrupt the apical-basal polarity of epithelial cells and saw no effect at all unless our flies were also starved of glucose. Under the latter conditions, the cells lost their polarity and often over-proliferated to form mini-tumour like growths. This not only showed that our initial idea was wrong, but revealed a completely unexpected link between nutrition and epithelial organization.

3) What message do you want to give young people all over Europe to take with them?

A career in science will never get boring, as one is always confronting new questions and using new approaches. Many different types of people can make a successful career in science. Some are very good at designing new techniques that benefit the whole field, others (like myself) are not so good at this, but have lots of ideas for how to use these techniques to ask interesting new questions, and some people are very good at interacting with the first two types of scientist to build effective teams and networks.

4) Why do you think that “Power of Research” is worth your support?

I have to confess that I sometimes enjoy playing computer games, and think that a game that encourages people to consider a career in science must be a good thing.