This is the second in a four-part series about the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.
For the past month, the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy has been relocating its headquarters to the recently completed Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences in order to strengthen its pathways for bioinformatics and genomics. Coinciding with this move is a wave of faculty recruitment for the institute.
IGSP was built on the concept of incorporating many disciplines and schools across the campus, so it needed a home base that “literally has one foot on the medical campus and one foot on main campus,” IGSP Director Huntington Willard said.
The decision to move to CIEMAS was made because of its central location and proximity to resources that fit into the scope of genomic science, including the Levine Science Research Center, Pratt School of Engineering, School of Medicine and various departments within Arts and Sciences.
“It’s the absolutely best location on campus for an interdisciplinary institute, a school without walls, whose reach is this broad,” Willard said. “We couldn’t achieve this from a base only in the medical school or only on the quad. CIEMAS gives us both.”
One of the main benefits to working in CIEMAS is the ability to work side-by-side with colleagues from various disciplines. Medical science will be juxtaposed with engineering science. To encourage an interdisciplinary feel, wet and dry labs are incorporated together within CIEMAS in order to facilitate collaborative opportunities.
“At the symbolic level, [CIEMAS] shows that different schools within the University—medicine and engineering in this case, of course—see mutual value in intermingling our faculties within the same facility,” said Sandy Williams, dean of the School of Medicine.
Individuals can still maintain connections to their primary departments, but will “live and work in this great environment,” said Joseph Nevins, director of the IGSP’s Center for Applied Genomics and Technology.
“It is going to become an epicenter for cross-disciplinary activity,” said Dr. Geoff Ginsburg, director of the Center for Genomic Medicine. “It is critical to have this very non-traditional set up to stimulate research to do the big science of IGSP.”
Christine Tobias, associate director of finance, planning and administration, said CIEMAS has been a “great recruitment tool.” The geography and environment of IGSP has attracted energetic and passionate researchers from around the country, she said.
“We are not a business. We are not a company. We don’t define what these researchers will do, but we recruit people with an interest,” Nevins noted. “We create the environment to add to their overall accomplishments.”
Terrence Furey, one of the 10 recruits, admires the combination of wet and computational labs in one place. Previously, he did sequence analysis at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he said he was not near any experimental labs.
“Here, I run into everyone in the halls and I actually get to see them working in the labs,” he said. “I can finally understand how the data was created.” Furey’s research is computationally oriented, and he will be looking at parts of the genome replicated in the early stages of the cell cycle.
The other recruits have diverse backgrounds, ranging from molecular genetics to computational biology to social sciences—even including women’s studies. “Their talents and expertise will really foster bridge-building and validate all our efforts,” Ginsburg said.
IGSP is still looking to add 10 more researchers to IGSP within the next year. “It’s a great start, but it’s only a start. We still have large holes that we want to fill if we’re to be successful,” Willard said.
Although recruitment has always been part of the original plan for IGSP, Willard has really stepped up the process, Provost Peter Lange said. “We needed a director with energy and vision and a Duke-wide commitment,” Lange said. “Everything [Willard] has done and this move to CIEMAS just seems so logical.”
Finding more space for inter- and multidisciplinary research , however, will continue to prove challenging. IGSP’s space in CIEMAS is already full and they will have to continue to expand beyond that base.
“We have officially marked day one of IGSP—[moving to CIEMAS] last week, this week and next week—as we all come together in CIEMAS,” Nevins said.
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