 |
|
Director's Message
January 1, 2007
Dear members and friends of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory,
By now, most of you have learned that I will serve as Director of The Picower Institute for a one-year term, starting today. Professor Earl Miller will continue as Associate Director.
The new year brings new opportunities and challenges, but the director's responsibility remains the same as it has always been: to provide an exciting, highly collaborative intellectual environment, supported by the infrastructure necessary to make breakthrough discoveries in neuroscience. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of Professor Susumu Tonegawa and the extraordinary philanthropy of Barbara and Jeffry Picower, The Picower Institute has achieved a position of international prominence. Our first collective challenge is to see that this star continues to rise.
MIT has always had distinguished neuroscientists, but viewed from the outside there was little evidence of intellectual cohesion or synergy. The new experiment begun by Susumu was to build a group of faculty around a common theme—how experience modifies the brain—and a cutting edge approach that exploits the tools of molecular biology and genetics to dissect the contributions of specific molecules, synapses, neurons and circuits to behavior. This experiment, culminating in creation of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, was a smashing success. Our faculty talk to one another, share students and reagents, and collaborate. We are genuinely interested in what our colleagues do, how they can help us, and how we can help them. The Picower Institute "whole" is greater than the sum of the parts—a fact that is readily apparent in the impressive productivity of our faculty. Moreover, many, if not all, of our faculty use, or plan to use, the technology that has become the hallmark of The Picower Institute. This technology of circuit-specific manipulation is no longer restricted to genetic organisms such as flies and mice, but soon will be applicable to primates as well.
I am pleased to say that Susumu Tonegawa will spearhead a new initiative within The Picower Institute, tentatively called the Center for Circuit Genomics. This Center is dedicated to perfecting the technology that will allow us to ask precise questions about how specific cell types and circuits contribute to the experience-dependent modification of neural systems and behavior in both health and disease. Since the time of Cajal, neuroscientists have wondered how myriad neuronal cell types contribute to brain function and dysfunction. The earliest attempts at localization of function within the brain involved, literally, burning a hole or aspirating away a part of the brain, followed by behavioral observations or, more recently, electrophysiological recordings of neuronal activity. We now stand at the threshold of realizing a dream of generations of neuroscientists: to be able to selectively and reversibly inactivate (or activate) specific synapses, cells and circuits within a brain region and then assay the consequences by recording the activity of hundreds, if not thousands of neurons.
|
|
|
|
|
Tonegawa's lab pioneered and is at the forefront of this effort, already chalking up the notable successes of circuit-specific disruptions of synaptic plasticity and function within the hippocampus. We are extremely fortunate that Susumu is dedicated to pursuing this endeavor at MIT and I consider the creation of this new Center to be our top priority in the coming year. Success in this endeavor will have a large positive impact on MIT neuroscience as a whole and the obvious home for such an initiative is The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.
Great science requires the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects. However, such projects are antithetical to the type of science encouraged by the funding mechanisms most have available. While Picower Institute faculty, fellows, and students can be justifiably proud of their excellent track record in obtaining funding from the NIH, the nature of this funding encourages "safe" science, since failures followed by loss of funding could have catastrophic consequences for an individual lab. We need to provide funding that encourages bold science and it needs to be made available to scientists when they are most creative. Another major goal will be to secure "venture funding" for all Picower Institute labs, with priority given to labs of faculty early in their career.
I greatly appreciate the expressions of support and encouragement I have received from the faculty and administration since I agreed to become Director. However, there is also the strong sentiment, which I most sincerely share, that in the long term we will be best served by recruiting a distinguished senior scientist with administrative experience for this crucial position. Therefore, another priority in the coming months will be to identify and recruit a new Picower Institute Director from outside MIT.
Finally, I believe we have a responsibility to work with our colleagues across the atrium to ensure that the whole of MIT neuroscience reaches its full potential. This wonderful new building is home to some of the best minds on the planet and each of us will benefit by working together towards the common goal of elevating MIT neuroscience.
The Picower Institute is in great shape, but we cannot rest on our laurels if we wish to maintain our position of leadership. As Director, I will ask for your help in building on our past successes. Some of the aforementioned initiatives will require a sustained effort to raise new funds, and success is not guaranteed, at least not in the short term. However, we can all work to reinforce the qualities that have made this Institute so successful. One thing I feel very strongly about is maintaining openness among the labs of The Picower Institute, and I ask that you all work to see that this tradition not only continues, but is strengthened as we move forward.
I wish you all a productive and rewarding new year.
Mark F. Bear
Director, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Picower Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
|
|
