Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the October 25,
2000
edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Shirley Tilghman’s `Fun’ Science
That Shirley Tilghman finds her work exciting
is an understatement. Last week one of her graduate students,
Ekaterina
Semenova, confirmed that she had made a very large deletion in
the mouse genome — a technical tour de force with enormous
implications
for studying the functions of genes.
As head of the new Institute of Integrative Genomics at Princeton
University,
Tilghman is charged with focusing on basic research, bringing to the
field not only a state-of-the-art scientific institute but a new
approach,
addressing integration and complexity. Her mission is to decipher
“how [genetic] parts fit together to create a functional cell,
a functional organ, a functional organism.”
Tilghman is well aware that only lately have women been able to hold
such prestigious positions. Six years ago she warned in a women’s
journal, “I know of few other professions where the excitement
that brought you to the field in the first place is sustained over
so many years. It would be a tragedy to exclude women from all this
fun.”
Tilghman is on a panel with Elliott Sigal of Bristol-Myers
Squibb
and John Baumann, a radiation oncologist at the Medical Center
of Princeton, moderated by science writer Richard Preston on
Wednesday, November 1, at 7:30 p.m., at Princeton University’s
Alexander
Hall. The Medical Center at Princeton is sponsoring the free program,
entitled “Releasing the Genome in the Bottle: The Promise of
Genomics
for New Medicines.” Registration is required: call 609-497-4190.
She will focus on the science of the human genome project, what the
project has done, and what the impact will be on the understanding
of the fundamentals of biology. “Much attention has been given
to its impact on medicine — the ways information will be
translated
into better medicines, better diagnostics, and better therapies. I
will try to give people a better sense of how knowing the `parts list’
will help us write the `instruction manual,’ one of the many metaphors
that describe how the practice of biology is carried out.”
Shirley Tilghman attributes her interest in science to a fascination
with numbers and puzzles, an interest in which she was encouraged
by her father. “He never questioned that it would be a wonderful
thing for a girl to be a scientist,” she says. She grew up in
Ontario. Canada, where her father was a banker, and was the second
oldest of four sisters. One is now a professor of economics, one
raises
horses, and the eldest lives in a group home for the mentally
retarded.
She majored in chemistry and graduated with honors from Queen’s
University
in Ontario in 1968, later earning a PhD in biochemistry from Temple.
She did postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health, where
she did groundbreaking work in cloning mammalian genes, and then
working
at the Institute for Cancer Research in Fox Chase before coming to
Princeton University in 1986.
But right after college she taught school for two years in Sierra
Leone. “It was the ’60s, and I wanted to do something for somebody
else,” she says. Working with people for whom English is a second
language, she says, “you learn how to use metaphors and get at
the core of an idea, rather than getting lost in the details.”
Communicating her vision to philanthropists is one of
her most important jobs as head of the Institute. “I am absolutely
dependent on Harold Shapiro’s extraordinary rapport with the
alumni,”
she says. “The qualities that make somebody a good teacher also
make an effective fundraiser — the ability to communicate big
ideas, put the initiative in a broad perspective, and to feel
passionately
about what you are trying to raise money for. If you believe it, you
can convince others to believe in it.”
These “good teacher” traits are not, she insists,
stereotypically
female. “I just don’t think that way. The most important thing
that directors need is a clear vision of what they want to do.”
For hiring her fellows, she says, a director needs “very good
taste in science,” particularly important for a multidisciplinary
institute. “It is virtually impossible to be an expert in every
area, and I have to depend on my colleagues for peer review.”
Tilghman has made have four formal appointments so far and will do
several searches this year and next year. When the building opens
in 2002 she will move to get to capacity — 12 to 15 appointments.
Senior faculty members might bring 12 to 15 staffers with them, while
junior faculty may come alone and build their departments later. The
total in the building, including support staff, post doctorals, and
undergraduates working on senior theses, will be 120 to 150 people.
Her biggest surprise since taking this job is how much of her input
was needed on the new building, designed by architect Rafael
Vinoly,
who also designed the Princeton University stadium. The building is
being named for Carl Icahn, the real estate and manufacturing
tycoon and 1957 Princeton graduate, who donated $20 million toward
the building’s construction. It is scheduled to be finished in early
2002.
“Essentially, I spent one day a week with the architects for the
last year. One of the most fascinating things is to get an insight
into how a different profession goes about their work,” she says.
The design of the laboratories is innovative, she says, because she
rejected the traditional design of cookie cutter labs. “The notion
that one size fits all absolutely does not work for our institution.
We will have chemists and physicists and computer scientists in ratios
we cannot predict today. So we are using completely modular laboratory
furniture including walls that can be disassembled in a matter of
days.” The system of metal panels connecting to grids on floor
and ceiling was developed in Silicon Valley for clean rooms. “If
you have a molecular biologist and change to a physicist, you don’t
have to spend six months ripping out and reassembling walls in a
different
state. It works like Legos, all assembled in little units.”
In spite of all the fun Tilghman is having, at 54, she is looking
forward to retirement. “One of the downsides of having a very
demanding professional career AND having a family (she has two
college-age
children) is that there are literally hundreds of things that I would
like to do. The notion of dying in my mouse room is not attractive
to me, not at all. I have very strong plans for retiring, certainly
before age 65.”
And anyway, the best research is being done by the young. “The
mean age of doing the experiment that wins you a Nobel prize is in
the mid 30s,” says Tilghman. “It has been documented that
the most exciting research is being done by people in their 30s.”
People like Semenova, who have both skill and good fortune. “She
had taken out a 1/2 million of the 3 billion base pairs in the mouse
genome,” says Tilghman, “and did it with new technology that
allows us to manipulate chromosomes in animals as complex as mammals
in order to understand what the functions of the gene are in that
region.”
“When Ekaterina designed this experiment, we assumed there were
many genes in this 1/2 million base pair. Now that we have the
sequence
we know that there is only one gene in that region. It is very unusual
to have so few genes in such a big amount of information. Now, when
she analyzes the mice that do not have this region, she will be able
to attribute the effect of the deletion,” says Tilghman. “It
has changed her whole project — and it is also a technical tour
de force.”
— Barbara Fox
Top Of PageOld-Fashioned Retail
The trend for manufacturers with industrial products is to turn those
products into something that can be sold in the consumer market, says
Joan Sitarz, director of Market Entry Direct, who keynoted a
federal department of commerce meeting in Reno earlier this month. Her
presentation, “How to Get Your Products in Front of Millions of
Potential Clients” was presented to the National Institute of
Standards and Technology’s annual Manufacturing Extensions Partnership
joint technical working session.
Market Entry Direct, based on George Davison Road, acts as
manufacturers’ representatives to the catalog industry. “We are
national, and we are not industry specific, so we run the gamut from
autos to toys,” says Sitarz, who is an alumna of Shippensburg
University, Class of 1981. A former owner of a small apparel
manufacturing company and department store buyer, she has helped
launched new companies and products for Fortune 500 firms and
independent start-ups (609-799-8898, E-mail: mediret@aol.com).
A manufacturer that wants to turn an industrial project into a
consumer product should:
Make sure the product can be individually packaged.Get it market ready. Make needed improvements to color andpackaging.Devise a marketing plan. Find out the markets and theniche markets.The big thrust now is to get products on the web, Sitarzsays, but that is not necessarily the best place to be, becausedistribution can be difficult. Instead of making one wholesaleshipment, factories have to “drop ship” individually. “Also, websitesgo out of business and that could kill you as a small manufacturer,”says Sitarz, “whereas catalogs buy wholesale and have theirdistribution set up to do ones-ies.”Catalogs are an excellent entree to the marketplace, in part becausethey buy wholesale and reach millions of potential customers, but alsobecause catalog owners are very good at database management. “Theyknow who buys from the catalog and who should be getting the catalog.””Having your product in a catalog gives you instant credibility andnational exposure and the ability to sell product,” says Sitarz.One caveat: “If you are in catalogs you can’t be out at retail, unlessyou are in the high end mom & pop shops.”Will the Web kill catalogs? No, says Sitarz, because the Web issupplementing catalogs. “Catalogs are now web-present. They arebranded in paper, are spreading to the web, and are now going tobricks & mortar, where people can see and touch.””The catalog sale is a very long sale, 18 to 24 months,” says Sitarz.”It is tough market to crack. You have to be tenacious.”Top Of PagePassports at NightTown halls in nearly every municipality are offeringpassports now, but the East Brunswick Public Library is going them onebetter: taking passport applications on evenings and Saturdays. Theadministration office will accept passport application from onweeknights, Monday to Thursday, from 5 to 9 p.m., and on Saturdaysfrom 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.Parking is free at 2 Jean Walling Civic Center, off Ryders Lane. Thelibrary sends the applications to the passport agency office inPhiladelphia, which mails passports directly to applicants. Any U.S.citizen can apply here; you do not need to be an East Brunswick or NewJersey resident. Bring old passport, two 2 x 2 passport photos, andtwo checks. Those without an old passport must bring items: proof ofcitizenship such as a certified birth certificate and identificationsuch as a valid U.S. driver’s license. For information call732-390-6761.Top Of PageFor Job HuntersThose who are looking for jobs, or foresee that they will lose theirjobs soon, can sign up for a free three-day workshop hosted by theJewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County. It isset for Tuesday, October 31 and Thursday and Friday, November 2 and 3,from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 707 Alexander Road, Suite 102.Participants will learn about self-assessment, opportunities todevelop skills, resume writing, interviewing, and the whole topic oflooking for jobs. Those who sign up must attend all three days andpreregistration is required. Call 609-987-8100.Top Of PageHelping Trenton HighTrenton Central High School seeks businesses and agencies to providesites for internships for its students who are being organized insmall, career-focused learning communities. “We would also like toform an advisory board for each small learning community,” saysPriscilla M. Dawson, the principal. “The advisory board willserve as a resource by providing information about the latest trendsin the industry, helping to establish workplace standards for ourstudents, and assisting in securing resources.”In addition to working with the internship program, otheropportunities to help students might involve providing careerspeakers, hosting students on a field trip to a company facility,providing mentors to students, or providing scholarships. Yet anotherway would be to offer slots for a Job Shadow Day set for Friday,February 2, 2001.A partnership breakfast will be held on Thursday, November 9, at 7:30a.m. at the school at 400 Chambers Street. For information callMary Burks at 609-989-2425 or Mary White at 609-989-2474.Or E-mail: mburks@tchs.trenton.k12.nj.usTop Of PageDonate Organs, PleaseReverend Peter K. Stimpson, director of the TrinityCounseling Service on Mercer Street, has taken the lead to ask fellowclergy members to encourage faith communities to sign organ and tissuesharing donor forms on National Donor Sabbath Weekend, November 10 to12. Stimpson’s wife has been battling an inherited autoimmune liverdisease and is on a transplant waiting list. For information call theSharing Network (www.sharenj.org or 800-SHARE NJ).Top Of PageCorporate AngelsIndependent Insurance Agents of Mercer County aresponsoring a Halloween party on Friday, October 27, for 100 teens andyoung adult in the Association for Retarded Citizens.Rider University’s Fine Arts Theater will be dedicated as the”Yvonne Theater” on Friday, November 10, at a gala performance of “TheFantasticks.” A $250,000 gift from John Spitznagel and hischildren, Yvonne and John Jr., honors Yvonne AlexanderSpitznagel.John Spitznagel recently retired as president and CEO of RobertsPharmaceutical, a 16-year-old biotech company with 130 employees basedin Eatontown. He is a Rider journalism graduate (Class of 1963) as washis late wife (Class of 1964), and both were editors of the studentnewspaper and wrote theater reviews. This production was chosenbecause when the future Spitznagels attended their first play atMcCarter Theater together, the play on the boards on that evening was”The Fantasticks.” The gift has paid for a modern light board andsound system, new seating and carpeting, enhanced stage curtains, anda remodeled lobby.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
