presents

Volume 2,Issue 1 Winter 2000

Inside this issue:

	Beachy Named Scientist of Year
	Greenhouse Complex Funded
	The Laboratory of Computational Genomics
	Board of Directors
	Building Progress
	Scientific Advisory Board/Fall Symposium

Beachy Named Scientist of Year

Roger N. Beachy, Ph.D., president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, has been named Research & Development (R&D) Magazine’s 1999 Scientist of the Year. R&D features Dr. Beachy in its November 1999 cover story entitled “Roger Beachy: A Leader in Revitalizing Plant Science.” Beachy was selected for this honor because of “his innovative research and his efforts to bring the latest transgenic technologies to the third world.” The cover story traces the development of Beachy’s early interest in plant pathology and its growth into breakthrough research on virus resistance in plants. This research has continued to progress and has also branched into studies on gene regulation and the development of vaccines in plants. Beachy’s concern for the people of developing countries resulted in his collaboration with Dr. Claude Fauquet in the creation of ILTAB (the International Laboratory for Tropical Agriculture), dedicated to helping the developing world improve agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner by transferring modern technologies in plant biology. “I am humbled to have been selected for this honor by R&D Magazine,” said Beachy. “The entire plant science research community can draw encouragement from the fact that a publication of this type, which reaches widely into the business community, would recognize the importance of discovery and innovation in plant biology in the same manner as is accorded other scientific disciplines.”

Greenhouse Complex Funded

On November 22, 1999, U.S. Senator for Missouri Kit Bond joined officials from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center at a press conference in St. Louis to announce Bond’s successful effort to secure $1.5 million in federal economic development funds for the construction of the Danforth Center’s greenhouse complex. “It has been an honor and a pleasure to help provide the team at the Danforth Center with tools they need to pursue their vision,” Bond stated. “It is with a great sense of pride that Missouri can claim host to this world-renowned effort to use new technologies that will improve human health and the environment in the coming century.” The Danforth Center’s greenhouse complex will be composed of thirteen separate aluminum, glass, and acrylic structures. Each will be individually controlled for temperature, light, and humidity, thereby allowing the Center’s researchers to conduct their plant-growth experiments in precisely controlled environments. In all, the complex will include approximately 14,000 square feet of space and will be an integral part of the Center’s 170,000 square-foot state-of-the-art research facility currently under construction in Creve Coeur. Derek Montgomery, Director of Government & Public Affairs at the Danforth Center, worked with Senator Bond and his staff on several projects during 1999. “Senator Bond has been a long-standing and spirited advocate for the nation’s science and technology community,” Montgomery said. “It’s been a pleasure to work with him and his staff over the last year and we are tremendously grateful for his continued support of the Danforth Center, its partners, and our broader efforts to strengthen plant science research and development across the St. Louis region.”

The Laboratory of Computational Genomics

Jeffrey Skolnick, Ph.D., Director

The last issue of the Leaflet introduced the Danforth Center's principal investigators. In this issue, we give you a closer look at Dr. Skolnick and his research group.

Dr. Jeffrey Skolnick, pictured standing behind the computer array used by his research group	The scientists in the Laboratory of Computational Genomics work in front of computer screens instead of at laboratory benches. Their research may exist in the heady realm of mathematical algorithms and complex computer programs, but it reaches the very heart of molecular biology. They are developing tools that will allow scientists to predict the function of a particular protein even before it has been physically isolated in a lab. Proteins are life’s basic building blocks, serving as support tissue, molecular transport vehicles, antibodies for immune defense, and enzymes for metabolism. Even with the great advances being made in biological science, we have only fragmentary knowledge, if any, of most of these proteins’ functions. Furthermore, protein isolation for analysis by traditional methods represents a huge investment of time and resources. The goal of complete characterization of all proteins would be pushed far into the future without the development of sophisticated computational tools like those being created in Dr. Jeffrey Skolnick’s lab.
Dr. Skolnick heads the Laboratory of Computational Genomics at the Danforth Center. He developed his interest in protein function prediction during his tenure at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California and brought his expertise to the Danforth Center in 1999, forming an integral component of the Center’s drive to excel in the molecular biology of plants. “We will be able to integrate computation with discoveries made in the experimental laboratories at the Danforth Center. This will greatly increase the effectiveness of the research done here,” Skolnick asserts. His research group currently numbers ten scientists. They are housed temporarily at the NIDUS Center for Scientific Enterprise, a biotechnology business incubator located near the grounds for the new Center facility, and are in the process of setting up a one thousand unit computer array for processing data.		Above is the current computer array at the Laboratory of Computational Genomics. Visible in the photo are about 40 stacked computer units. The size of the array will increase by 25-fold when complete.
A graphical representation of the sequence to structure to function prediction pathway, which begins with knowledge of a gene's components and proceeds through protein folding to knowledge of a protein's function.	Starting with the basic knowledge of the order of amino acids in a protein, that is, starting with a protein’s sequence, the computational genomics group folds the protein into a 3-dimensional structure in the virtual world of the computer. Skolnick and his group use two methods for folding proteins: ab initio folding approaches, which predict a protein’s shape based on the known physical qualities of its amino acids; and threading approaches, which fold a protein sequence by threading it through a known structure to see if its amino acids would accept that shape. It is the 3-dimensional shape of the protein, along with the characteristics of its component molecules (the amino acids) that are responsible for a protein’s function or activity. Using these folding algorithms, Skolnick’s group has successfully predicted the structure of a significant percentage of small proteins. Within these predicted protein structures, the researchers are able to identify the particular sites where the protein’s catalytic activity occurs and using this information can make predictions about what the protein does. Therefore, they are able to go from a protein’s sequence to its structure to its function. This ability is vital to the growing area of genomics research, which is rapidly spelling out the sequence of thousands of genes, sequences that are translated into the sequences of proteins. By means of the methods developed by Skolnick and his group, researchers will be able to scan through gene sequences and find the code for proteins that have a particular function. This will inevitably speed the goal of understanding how an organism’s genetic makeup determines its physical characteristics. “Ultimately,” Skolnick explains, “using these methods, we can manipulate metabolic pathways in a plant in such a way that we can control the end products and produce useful or novel biomaterials.”

Continuing Feature: The Board of Directors of the Danforth Center

This and upcoming issues of the Leaflet feature perspectives on the members of the Danforth Center's board of directors. Responsible for defining and supporting the Center's mission and ensureing that the organization operates effectively, the board includes individuals with corporate, academic, and scientific backgrounds. Here we highlight two of the board's eleven members.

William H. Danforth Chairman of the Board Dr. William H. Danforth, son of the Center’s namesake, is chancellor emeritus of Washington University in St. Louis and also serves as vice chairman of the university’s board of trustees. He is a director of the board of trustees of the Danforth Foundation and a trustee of the American Youth Foundation. Born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 10, 1926, he received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1951. After completing his internship in medicine at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, he served in the United States Navy from 1952-54. He returned to St. Louis to continue his medical training at Barnes Hospital and at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Danforth joined the Washington University Medical School faculty in 1957. In 1967, he was appointed professor of internal medicine, which is his present faculty rank at the university. From 1965-71, Danforth served as vice chancellor for medical affairs and as president of the Washington University Medical Center. Danforth became Washington University’s thirteenth chancellor on July 1, 1971 and served until his retirement on June 30, 1995. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and served on the council from 1977-79. Danforth is chairman of the board of governors of the St. Louis Christmas Carols Association. He is cochairman of the board of directors of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. In addition, he serves on the boards of directors of Ralston Purina Company, Ralcorp, and BJC Health System, all headquartered in St. Louis.

Bruce M. Alberts Dr. Bruce M. Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., is recognized for his work both in biochemistry and molecular biology. He is noted particularly for his extensive study of the protein complexes that allow chromosomes to be replicated. Dr. Alberts has made many significant contributions to the field of life sciences, serving in different capacities on a number of advisory and editorial boards, including as chairman of the Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council. Born in 1938 in Chicago, Illinois, Alberts graduated from Harvard College with a degree in biochemical sciences. He earned a doctorate from Harvard University in 1965. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1966 and after ten years moved to the University of California, San Francisco where he was appointed professor and vice chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. In 1980, he was awarded the honor of an American Cancer Society Lifetime Research Professorship. In 1985, he was named chairman of the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Alberts has served on the advisory board of the National Science Resources Center and on the National Academy of Science’s National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment. He is principal author of The Molecular Biology of the Cell and Essential Cell Biology.

Building Progress

The construction site for the new Danforth Center facility may not look pretty right now, but it is showing significant progress. This photo was taken January 17, 2000 and displays the large excavation hole and the foundation piers which will support the building. Careful testing of the site’s geology was required before placing the piers, which are drilled deep into the soil to rest on bedrock. You can soon look for the massive tower crane which will be set up to lift and move materials for the rising structure. The construction manager for the project is McCarthy. Completion of the structure is targeted for the middle of 2001.

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Scientific Advisory Board

As part of the effort to maintain awareness of issues and developments related to scientific research, the Center consults a scientific advisory board. The eight members, prominent in research fields pertinent to the Center’s mission, help guide the direction of research. Currently, the board consists of the following members: R. James Cook, Endowed Chair in Wheat Research, Department of Plant Pathology, Crops, and Soils, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. Peter K. Hepler, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Biology Department, Amherst, Massachusetts. Luis Herrera Estrella, Professor, Unidad De Biotecnologia, Departmento De Ingenieria Genetica De Plantas, Irapuato, Gt. Mexico. John Johnson, Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California. Sharon R. Long, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical, Institute and Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California. Clarence A. Ryan, Jr., Charlotte Y. Martin Professor of Biochemistry, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. Christopher R. Somerville, Director, Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, California. Professor, Laboratory of Genetics, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.

Fall Symposium

On October 12, 1999, three members of the Scientific Advisory Board made presentations at the first annual Plant Science Mini Symposium, sponsored jointly by the Danforth Center and Washington University’s Department of Biology. Dr. Christopher Somerville detailed recent research in plant functional genomics. He discussed the significant progress being made in assigning functions to genes currently being identified by numerous projects dedicated to gene sequencing. Dr. John Johnson presented developments in the structure-based design of plant viruses, describing methods researchers use to manipulate the protein structure of the outer surface of a virus. Such techniques give scientists the ability to create viruses as platforms for a variety of useful functions. Reflecting a growing concern with the effect of population pressure on agricultural and forestry practices, Dr. Marc Van Montagu argued for the necessity for improvement of cultivated plants through the addition of genes conferring new traits. He highlighted the many possibilities for plant improvement, from salt- or drought-tolerance to improved ability to withstand cold, stressing the benefits for farmers, industry, and consumers.

To graphically depict the identity of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the Center’s founding partners chose logo elements representing the relationship between people and plants, and placed them in positions where they support one another. The logo’s core element is a seed from which sprouts a healthy, vibrant form of plant life growing to maturity above the logo’s center line. Below that line-surrounding the seed as soil might-are the words discover, enlighten, share, nourish. These four words define the shared aspirations of the Danforth Center’s pre-eminent plant scientists, as well as those who generously support their work.

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
7425 Forsyth Boulevard, Box 1098
St. Louis, MO 63105 USA

Phone: 314.935.9852
Fax: 314.935.8605

Editors:

Derek Montgomery

Jan Druyvesteyn

Managing Editor & Writer:

Gwen Ericson