The Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine is an interdisciplinary center, part of Stanford School of Medicine at Stanford University,

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the 2020 census. Stanford is an unincorporated area of ...

. Considered a "unique facility", it was one of the first research centers to take a translational medicine approach to molecular and medical genetics.

History

An interdisciplinary center for molecular and genetic medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine was proposed in the 1980s by

Paul Berg Paul Berg (born June 30, 1926) is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their con ...

Arthur Kornberg Arthur Kornberg (March 3, 1918 – October 26, 2007) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959 for the discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic ac ...

Donald Kennedy Donald Kennedy (August 18, 1931 – April 21, 2020) was an American scientist, public administrator, and academic. He served as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (1977–1979), President of Stanford University (1980– ...

and others. Berg has said, "At the time, our goal was to focus on the molecular and genetic basis of disease as the starting point for new forms of medicine... We wanted to improve the process by which studies at the most fundamental level could be translated into medical practice." This type of "bench-to-bedside" approach has since been termed translational medicine. The center was privately funded. Paul Berg obtained the support of philanthropists

Arnold O. Beckman Arnold Orville Beckman (April 10, 1900 – May 18, 2004) was an American chemist, inventor, investor, and philanthropist. While a professor at California Institute of Technology, he founded Beckman Instruments based on his 1934 invention of th ...

(1900-2004) and his wife Mabel (1900-1989), which was critical to establishing the center. The Beckmans agreed to donate $12 million over 5 years, approximately 1/5 of the cost of the new center, through the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. In addition, Beckman promoted the project to others who contributed an approximately equal amount. the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine is one of five institutions which receive support from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation on an ongoing basis. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, headed by

Donald S. Fredrickson Donald Sharp "Don" Fredrickson (August 8, 1924 – June 7, 2002) was an Americans, American medical researcher, principally of the lipid metabolism, lipid and cholesterol metabolism, and director of National Institutes of Health and subsequently ...

was also a major supporter of the center. Paul Berg, who had received a Nobel Prize in 1980, was appointed as the first director of the center in 1985. In addition to the existing Department of Biochemistry, two new departments were created within the center: Molecular and Developmental Biology and Molecular and Cellular Physiology. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute Unit of Molecular and Genetic Medicine was also included in the Beckman Center. Establishment of the center enabled Stanford to substantially expand its faculty, creating 20 new positions in the Beckman Center in addition to those already in the medical school. To connect the various departments and researchers, Berg officially established the Program in Molecular and Genetic Medicine as a unified program "for all those interested in molecular and genetic approaches to biological question, and to provide access to funding, facilities, and teaching opportunities." The Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine officially opened on May 24, 1989. Since then, researchers at the Center have developed a variety of new techniques and made substantial scientific contributions. Leonard and Leonore Herzenberg brought fluorescence-activated cell sorting technology to the Beckman Center. Their technology enabled

Irving Weissman Irving Lerner "Irv" Weissman (born Great Falls, Montana, October 21, 1939) is a Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford University where he is the Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medic ...

to isolate

hematopoietic stem cells Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the stem cells that give rise to other blood cells. This process is called haematopoiesis. In vertebrates, the very first definitive HSCs arise from the ventral endothelial wall of the embryonic aorta within ...

. Patrick O. Brown and Ronald W. Davis developed techniques for

DNA microarrays A DNA microarray (also commonly known as DNA chip or biochip) is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface. Scientists use DNA microarrays to measure the expression levels of large numbers of genes simultaneously or to g ...

. Biochemist

James Spudich James A. Spudich () is an American scientist and professor. He is the Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Biochemistry and of Cardiovascular Disease at Stanford University and works on the molecular basis of muscle contraction. He was awar ...

and Nobel-winning physicist Steven Chu collaborated on research to target single atoms and measure molecular force and later launched the interdisciplinary

Stanford University Bio-X Initiative Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. S ...

. Scientists have developed and explored a variety of scientific models, from Lucy Shapiro's single-celled Caulobacter crescentus to the

three-spined stickleback The three-spined stickleback (''Gasterosteus aculeatus'') is a fish native to most inland and coastal waters north of 30°N. It has long been a subject of scientific study for many reasons. It shows great morphological variation throughout its ra ...

and the

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family (Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often ca ...

. Many are working on understanding basic processes whose disruption can cause disease.

Roel Nusse Roeland "Roel" Nusse (born 9 June 1950, Amsterdam) is a professor at Stanford University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research was seminal in the discovery of Wnt signaling, a family of pleiotropic regulators in ...

has explored the

Wnt signaling pathway The Wnt signaling pathways are a group of signal transduction pathways which begin with proteins that pass signals into a cell through cell surface receptors. The name Wnt is a portmanteau created from the names Wingless and Int-1. Wnt signaling ...

in mice and

fruit flies Fruit fly may refer to: Organisms * Drosophilidae, a family of small flies, including: ** ''Drosophila'', the genus of small fruit flies and vinegar flies ** ''Drosophila melanogaster'' or common fruit fly ** '' Drosophila suzukii'' or Asian frui ...

, and linked it to

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

and

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

Philip A. Beachy Philip Arden Beachy (born October 25, 1958) is Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California and an Associate at Stanford's Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Early lif ...

has examined the

Hedgehog signaling pathway The Hedgehog signaling pathway is a signaling pathway that transmits information to embryonic cells required for proper cell differentiation. Different parts of the embryo have different concentrations of hedgehog signaling proteins. The pathwa ...

and its role in embryonic development and cell formation. Matthew P. Scott has identified the human homolog

PTCH1 Protein patched homolog 1 is a protein that is the member of the patched family and in humans is encoded by the ''PTCH1'' gene. Function PTCH1 is a member of the patched gene family and is the receptor for sonic hedgehog, a secreted molecule ...

as a key tumor suppressor gene for the Hedgehog signaling pathway and the causative gene for Nevoid basal-cell carcinoma syndrome. Many of the faculty have received important awards for their work.

Brian Kobilka Brian Kent Kobilka (born May 30, 1955) is an American physiologist and a recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for discoveries that reveal the workings of G protein-coupled receptors. He is currently a professor in ...

was a co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanisms of

G protein–coupled receptor G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large group of evolutionarily-related p ...

s. Thomas C. Südhof was a co-recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how vesicles release their contents when nerve cells communicate with one another in the brain. At a 25th anniversary symposium, entitled "Innovation in the Biosphere", speakers spoke of the importance of the center's collaborative multidisciplinary environment. Director

Lucy Shapiro Lucy Shapiro (born July 16, 1940, New York City) is an American developmental biologist. She is a professor of Developmental Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Res ...

emphasized information transfer:

Directors

, Director, 2000- *

, Director emeritus, served as director from 1985-2000

Faculty

The Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine has included at least two Nobel laureates and 12 members of the National Academy of Sciences among its faculty. Over 200 faculty members from the university are members of the Program in Molecular and Genetic Medicine.

Research Fellowships

The Beckman Fellow program at Stanford was established in 1999 to support young researchers.

Research services

The Beckman center has developed several core "service centers" whose resources can be utilized by associated researchers. These include a Computer Services and Bioinformatics Facility (CSBF), a Cell Sciences Imaging Facility (CSIF), a Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting Facility (FACS), and a Protein and Nucleic Acid Facility (PAN).

References

{{coord, 37.431870, -122.176641, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-CA, display=title University and college laboratories in the United States Research institutes established in 1989 Stanford University Stanford University medicine