Director's Message

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The MBL campus is bustling these days amid a flurry of construction and conferences, not to mention the usual output from our centers and labs.

We officially kicked off the source of the construction hubbub—the Loeb Laboratory renovation project—on August 31. The building’s internal infrastructure is being completely gutted to create a thoroughly modern facility for the MBL’s research-training programs. Richard Cutler, Director of Facilities and Services, is overseeing the ambitious $25 million renovation, which is slated for completion on June 1, 2010, just in time for our summer discovery courses.

On September 21, we welcomed Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray, key state officials, and representatives from funders Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Massachusetts Life Sciences Center at a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate this momentous effort and to usher in a new era for MBL education.

MBL faculty and students are world-renowned and many significant discoveries have come from our courses. Now, following this renovation project, we'll be able to offer faculty and students a first-rate facility that’s in keeping with the quality of our education program.

The most recent testament to the caliber of these programs came earlier this month with the announcement of the 2009 Nobel Prizes. Jack Szostak, co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, taught in the MBL Physiology course in 1982—along with fellow Nobelists Roger Kornberg (Chemistry 2006), Tim Hunt (Physiology or Medicine, 2001), and Leland Hartwell (Physiology or Medicine, 2001)—in what was a remarkable year for the course. Thomas Steitz, winner of 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was a faculty member in the 1981 Physiology course and his co-recipient, Ada Yonath, was an MBL independent investigator in 1969.

Like many scientists across the nation, for the last several months, my colleagues and I have been busy submitting proposals to the NIH, NSF, and other federal agencies for grant money stemming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In hopes of taking full advantage of the economic, scientific, and educational benefits resulting from this historic science funding, 32 grant applications covering everything from funds to purchase the latest generation of instruments, to research grants for exploring alternative energy from algae, to funds for renovation of our major laboratories and support facilities have been submitted to date. In addition, we already had several dozen previously submitted grants "in the pipeline" that were eligible for ARRA funding.

We are pleased to report that for 2009 to date, a total of 18 grants have been awarded to the MBL through ARRA, representing more than $8.8 million in new funding. And we also have 15 major ARRA grant proposals and over a dozen pipeline grants still pending.

I look forward to sharing our progress on these and other scientific endeavors—as well updates on the Loeb renovation—over the coming months.

With all best wishes,
Gary Borisy, Director and CEO