Big Science Takes On Cellular Signaling

Abstract

Some science is just too big for one lab or an ordinary-sized team of collaborators to accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. The Human Genome Project was one example. Approximately 1,000 researchers from 16 institutions in five countries stepped in, broke the task into manageable chunks that individual labs labored on simultaneously, and figured out the sequence of base pairs in the human genome years earlier than originally predicted. Scientists now want to employ a similar parallel processing approach to delve into the complicated world of cellular signaling. And they hope that by renouncing many intellectual property and publication rights they can keep ideas flowing freely, reduce costs, and speed up development of drugs and diagnostic reagents. Last month, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) announced the launch of the Alliance for Cellular Signaling. NIGMS will invest $25 million in the alliance over its first five years. Pharmaceutical firms and nonprofit organizations ...