Janelia Farm Research Articles

Ten Simple Rules for a Successful Collaboration

Scientific research has always been a collaborative undertaking, and this is particularly true today. For example, between 1981 and 2001, the average number of coauthors on a paper for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A rose from 3.9 to 8.4 [1]. Why the increase? Biology has always been considered the study of living systems; many of us now think of it as the study of complex systems. Understanding this complexity requires experts in many different domains. In short, these days success in being a biologist depends more on one's ability to collaborate than ever before. The Medical Research Centers in the United Kingdom figured this out long ago, and the new Janelia Farm research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States has got the idea, as it strongly promotes intra- and inter-institutional collaborations [2]. Given that collaboration is crucial, how do you go about picking the right collaborators, and how can you best make the collaboration work? Here are ten simple rules based on our experience that we hope will help. Additional suggestions can be found in the references [3,4]. Above all, keep in mind that these rules are for both you and your collaborators. Always remember to treat your collaborators as you would want to be treated yourself—empathy is key.

Neurobiology on the Farm

Howard Hughes Medical Institute expects its new $500 million facility to produce a crop of interdisciplinary scientists. But some researchers wonder what will grow at Janelia Farm. (Read more.)

New Approach to Light Microscopy Sharpens Molecular-Level Resolution

A new form of light microscopy, called photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), greatly boosts resolution over more conventional approaches and promises to improve and become more versatile, according to Harald Hess and Eric Betzig, who recently moved to the Virginia-based Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute near Washington, D.C. Yet, “in terms of more exotic forms of microscopy, this is one of the simplest—and is ripe for commercializing,” Hess says.

NIMR Awaits the Final Verdict

Is translational research enhanced by the proximity of research institutes to hospitals? For scientists at the UK's National Institute of Medical Research, which is facing relocation from London's outskirts to its center, the question is no longer academic.

Janelia Farm: An Experiment in Scientific Culture

Janelia Farm, the new research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is an ongoing experiment in the social engineering of research communities.

Eric Betzig, group leader, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Leesburg, Virginia

Eric Betzig, group leader, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Leesburg, Virginia

Farming for new opportunities

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has departed from its tradition of primarily funding investigators in their home institutions by developing a brand new campus which it hopes will foster new research possibilities. Heather Dawes reports.

Nurturing interdisciplinary research

The research in biology has been transformed by the products of interdisciplinary research. Here we explore why it is challenging for universities to bring biologists together with engineers, physicists and computer scientists for productive collaboration, and we evaluate alternative solutions. In particular, we describe how the new Janelia Farm Research Campus of Howard Hughes Medical Institute aims to provide a home for creative scientists from different disciplines to attack major biomedical research problems.

HHMI'S JANELIA FARM SETS SCIENTIFIC FOCUS

HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INstitute—a nonprofit philanthropy that supports biomedical research—has settled on the scientific focus of Janelia Farm, its new $500 million freestanding research campus in northern Virginia. It's now recruiting some of the 300 biologists, chemists, physicists, computer scientists, and engineers who will work together at Janelia to determine how the healthy brain works and to develop new imaging tools. We are looking for scientists who are really passionate about working on these problems in this kind of collaborative, interdisciplinary environment, says Gerald M. Rubin, an HHMI investigator and University of California, Berkeley, biologist who will head the facility Our scientists will have unparalleled freedom and resources to explore those problems. He wants to fill Janelia—which will officially open its doors in the fall of 2006—with creative and risk-taking scientists who have all kinds of expertise, like a scientific Noah's Ark. HHMI is best known for its investigator ...

Room of its own.

The new Janelia Farm Research Campus for multidisciplinary research is a major change in strategy for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Biomedical research. Rubin to head Hughes Institute's new 'farm'.

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHAiming to create new hothouse for basic biology, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) broke ground this week on $500 million complex in Loudoun County, Virginia, called the Janelia Farm Research Campus. The newly named director, fruit fly genomics researcher Gerald Rubin of HHMI, describes the project as a great experiment in the sociology of science, starting from blank slate.