“What to Do about the Future We're about to Get”
John L. Petersen
Founder and President, The Arlington Institute
Eighth Annual Lynford Lecture
Remarks by Jeffrey H. Lynford
November 2004
New York Council Speaker Miller, President Chang, Professors Chudnovsky, faculty and
students:
By a show of hands, who of you were with us in Dibner Auditorium four years ago, in October 1999, at the Second Annual IMAS Lecture, when Dr. J. Craig Venter made a presentation outlining the latest "shotgun" research techniques being utilized to decode the human genome?
At that time he was President and Chief Scientific Officer of Celera Group, and the following Spring came the world famous announcement about his team's successful research results.
This afternoon, following in our tradition of inviting "the best and the brightest" to the Poly campus, we will hear from Dr. Gerald M. Rubin, who also played an important role in that team's decoding efforts.
He will speak on his continuing research relating to the fruit fly, or Drosophila Melanogaster. In March 2000, in a special issue of Science Magazine, the completion of the fruit fly's genomic sequence and the enumeration of its 13,601 genes were announced. This achievement had, and will continue to have, profound implications for research in biology and human diseases, because the biochemistry of fruit flies and humans is remarkably similar.
As Dr. Rubin stated in his testimony before Congress the following month in April 2000:
"Drosophila has been a favorite of experimental biologists for over 90 years. One measure of its key role in medically relevant research is that on three separate occasions, in 1933, 1946 and 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for discoveries made using this fruit fly."
In that same testimony Dr. Rubin explained how he and his university colleagues came to collaborate with Dr. Venter and other staff members at Celera. This was a somewhat controversial, but courageous, decision at that time. Many members of the academic community were less than enthusiastic about a joint venture between the not-for-profit educational sector and the for-profit biotechnology corporate research sector.
Ultimately Dr. Rubin's decision was vindicated, as the genome sequencing was completed a year earlier than scheduled, with an estimated savings of $10 million of Federal government funding, and because most importantly, it became freely available to over 5,000 researchers and scientists world-wide.
So where do the boundaries begin and end between the entrepreneur and academic? A question that will not be answered satisfactorily today or perhaps ever, but an important one nevertheless. It may be especially relevant for students graduating from institutions such as Poly and proceeding to build careers and earn livelihoods in such fields as bioinformatics and computer sciences - careers to repay student loans, nurture new families, and support parents who sacrificed to make college educations possible.
Now I would like to introduce the Honorable Gifford Miller. As Speaker of the NYC Council, he is responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the 51 member group. The Council's work affects the lives of all New Yorkers. For example, it is responsible for ratifying, or not, the city's $42 billion annual budget.
As a graduate of Princeton University, where he met his wife Pamela, he knows the importance and value of a solid education. In this regard, he has led the drive to increase education dollars for New York City schools with the Council's "Education First" campaign.
Gifford has provided the leadership for many important NYC initiatives including those relating to increased access to health care, breast cancer screening, and services for people with HIV and AIDS. He continues to work for the creation of more affordable housing and the revitalization of the City's economy in all the boroughs.
This is his first visit to the Poly campus to see how we are helping our students prepare for the challenges of the 21 st century. Please join me in welcoming Gifford Miller.