Janelia Farm's research agenda will be not proscribed, but evolutionary. There will be a strong focus on developing new tools—experimental methods, computer software, and scientific instruments—needed to advance research capabilities. The aim is to identify important biomedical problems for which future progress requires technological innovation and then nurture the development of integrated teams of venturesome biologists and tool builders.

To narrow the focus to three to five ideas for initial research, Gerald Rubin and colleagues are organizing a series of workshops with leaders in several fields of interest. While not pinpointing future Janelia research, the topics here hint at broad directions for Janelia's science:

• Perception and behavior, organized by HHMI investigators Cornelia I. Bargmann and Richard Axel. Neuroscience, imaging, and computation.
  
  
• Biochemistry of single cells, organized by HHMI investigators Robert Tjian and Gerald R. Crabtree. Methods required to study biochemical reactions and processes in single cells.
  
  
• Membranes, membrane proteins, and membrane-associated molecular machines, organized by HHMI investigators Roderick MacKinnon, Eric Gouaux, and Tom A. Rapoport. Overcoming the unique challenges limiting experimental study of cellular processes that occur at or within membranes.
  
  
• Functional imaging in living systems, organized by HHMI investigators Roger Y. Tsien and Eric R. Kandel and Max Planck Institute directors Winfried Denk and Nikos K. Logothetis. Emerging methods for monitoring gene activity, protein modification and subcellular localization, ion fluxes, and other metabolic activities in living cells.
  
  
• Imaging cellular structures, organized by HHMI investigators David A. Agard and Eva Nogales and Max Planck Institute directors Wolfgang Baumeister and Stefan W. Hell. Emerging methods in light and electron microscopy for determining the structure of cellular components.

Download this story in Acrobat PDF format.
(requires Acrobat Reader)

Reprinted from the HHMI Bulletin,
Summer 2004, pages 28-32.
©2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute