© 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd

news

NATURE | VOL 397 | 7 JANUARY 1999 | www.nature.com 3

[WASHINGTON] A number of leading USresearch universities are planning new insti-tutes to bring physical and biomedical scien-tists together. This reflects a growing feelingthat these fields should be linked more close-ly in both research and teaching.

One of the largest initiatives comes fromStanford University, where the Nobel-prizewinning physicist Steven Chu and bio-chemist James Spudich are spearheading aproposal for a research centre housing 50 fac-ulty members, spanning disciplines fromapplied physics to clinical medicine.

Multidisciplinary research centres arealso planned at the University of Chicago,which is setting up an ‘interdivisional insti-tute’ straddling the biological and physicalsciences, and the University of California atBerkeley, which is planning a building for itsbioengineering department and some facul-ty members from molecular biology and sev-eral physical science departments.

In addition, Princeton University is dueto announce plans this week for an interdis-ciplinary genomics institute in a new$40 million building connected to its molec-ular biology department.

About 10 of the 50 posts in the Stanfordinstitute would be new positions. The pro-posal, which the university administrationsupports, calls for a new building of 200,000square feet, which would make it one of Stan-ford’s largest research centres.

University staff declined to estimate theproject’s cost. But the building alone wouldcost “tens of millions of dollars”, according toCharles Kruger, dean of research.

Although some hurdles — includingraising outside funds — remain to be cleared

applied physics and biology departments,starting in September.

Bio-X is motivated partly by the growingperception that a deeper understanding ofcomplex biological systems will need a morequantitative type of biology that is closelyintegrated with the physical sciences.

Much of molecular biology already relieson experimental techniques invented byphysicists, such as NMR and X-ray diffrac-tion. But as biology becomes more data-rich,it increasingly requires the analytical andcomputational methods characteristic of thephysical sciences.

At the same time, physicists are findingnew problems in biology. For example, Chu,who won the Nobel prize for work on lasercooling of trapped atoms, now also works onthe behaviour of single protein molecules.

The desire to bring together scientistsfrom different disciplines stems from anawareness that traditional departments canbe physical barriers to cross-fertilization.This is part of the thinking behind Prince-ton’s new institute, planned to be built with-in two years, with about 12 faculty drawnfrom physics, chemistry, mathematics andengineering, as well as from biology.

Developmental geneticist Shirley Tilgh-man, the institute’s director, says it will focuson what she calls “integrative biology” — theintegration of many kinds of information tounderstand complex biological processes,such as interactions between cells or genes.

“Biology has thrived in the past 50 yearsby taking things apart and identifying theircomponents,” says Tilghman. “But there is aconsensus in the field that the time is comingvery soon to reverse the process” — to studyhow these components interact to formcomplex systems.

Chicago approved its interdivisionalinstitute in June 1997, and two co-directorswere appointed last year. A building of morethan 200,000 square feet is planned, costing$110 million and due to be built by 2002. Itwill house not just the 24 faculty members ofthe new institute (half of whom will be newappointments), but also several existingdepartments and Howard Hughes inves-tigators.

The new centres should each have animpact on graduate and undergraduateteaching, as well as research. “There is agrowing feeling in the biological communitythat we need to be thinking hard about howto train the next generation of biologists,”says Tilghman. She suggests that this train-ing should include more mathematics,physics and chemistry. Laura Garwin

before the centre can receive formal approvalfrom Stanford’s board of trustees, its sup-porters expect the plan to go ahead, and hopeto have the new building by 2002.

The project is currently called ‘Bio-X’,reflecting the desire to mix biologists withresearchers from other disciplines, but with-out an explicit agenda of techniques to beused or problems to be solved.

“We just want to mix smart peopletogether in an interdisciplinary environ-ment, and let nature take its course,” saysSpudich. The new building will be betweenthe medical school and the science depart-ments, and Spudich hopes it will draw peo-ple in from the surrounding buildings.

The promise of the centre has alreadyattracted one prominent new faculty mem-ber to Stanford. Princeton biophysicistSteven Block, a pioneer in the use of ‘opticaltweezers’ to study molecular motors, hasaccepted a joint appointment in Stanford’s

US universities create bridgesbetween physics and biology

[JERUSALEM] Israeli officials have condemneda French-led effort to make Israel’sparticipation in the European Union’s fifthFramework research programmeconditional on it implementing the ‘WyePlantation’ agreement reached with thePalestinian Authority in October.

Pierre Lebovics, spokesperson for theFrench embassy in Tel Aviv, says that,although Israeli participation is desirable inprinciple, “it is clear that such participationhas a political dimension, in the context offurthering the peace process and theimplementation of the Wye accords”.

But Orna Berry, Israel’s chief scientist,describes France’s stance as “a flagrantviolation of professional integrity”. She says

she will refuse to co-ordinate Israel’sparticipation in the Framework programmeunless an agreement with Israel is signed bythe European Union within two weeks.

Berry says that, if the matter is notresolved by mid-January, when the first callsfor projects are issued, there will be littlesense in Israel participating.

She argues that Israel’s strong researchcommunity, and her own experience inworking with the Palestinians and Jordan,can contribute to European research anddevelopment. “The right thing to do is toconcentrate on what we have in commonand not on what separates us.” The issue willbe taken up by Europe’s Council of Ministersearly this month. Haim Watzman

France questions Israeli research deal