February 25, 2005

SAC meeting examines implications of changing scale of science

In recent years, biomedical research has been altered by the emergence of powerful but very expensive research tools and huge multidisciplinary, multi-institutional initiatives such as the Human Genome Project. These changes already are affecting the way some MGHers are conducting research and was the focus of last week's 58th annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). A group of distinguished researchers from across the country, the SAC meets with MGH researchers annually to advise the hospital on its research program.

The two-day event opened Feb. 16 with the annual Celebration of Science poster session and a research symposium (at left). Of the l72 posters, 12 were selected as posters of distinction. Students from the Timilty Middle School, advised by MGH volunteers, also presented their science fair projects. The research symposium featured two MGH researchers — David Altshuler, MD, PhD, of MGH Molecular Biology, and Alan Ezekowitz, MBChB, DPhil, chief of Pediatrics for MassGeneral Hospital for Children — and keynote speaker Robert Horvitz, PhD, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Nobel Prize winner and SAC member.

Altshuler discussed the challenges of determining how the interplay of normal genetic variations may increase the risk of common diseases like type-2 diabetes. Ezekowitz illustrated how the scale of research has changed in studies of the innate immune system — from a single molecule, to the relationship between molecules, to the complex interactions of multiple molecular pathways. Horvitz then described how studies of the tiny C. elegans worm are helping unravel the process of programmed cell death.

On Feb. 17, Daniel Podolsky, MD, chairman of the Executive Committee on Research, opened the SAC meeting by outlining the broad MGH research landscape and identifying the critical questions to be addressed about future research directions. To give perspective, Dennis Ausiello, MD, chief of MGH Medicine, profiled the principal investigators' changing roles over time. The balance of the program engaged MGH researchers in panel discussions with each other and with the SAC members — considering the challenges of participating in such multi-institutional research efforts as the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) and the Broad Institute and discussing how changes in scale already affect MGH research programs. The day culminated in a panel discussion about the implications for research career development, led by Nancy Tarbell, MD, director of the new MGH Center for Faculty Development.