Measuring Success in Science

Alan Saltiel
Mary Sue Coleman Director of the Life Sciences Institute 

Success is the child of audacity.

-Benjamin Disraeli   

In this era of fiscal challenges and economic uncertainty, where society is compelled to make tough-minded choices between which endeavors to support, there is a fervor to find so-called objective (often number-based) metrics to define success. Science is not exempt from this pressure. The ambitious STAR metrics initiative at NIH, which is attempting to quantify the return on investment to the American taxpayer from the public funding of biomedical research, is a good example of the sort of effort underway to quantify research success on the national level.

Within the academic science community and within individual universities and colleges, we also struggle with identifying the right metrics to measure science success. In this issue of explore LSI we report on a number of statistics about the LSI (see story below), including our impressive track record in garnering external funding support for our research. While I am very proud of our achievements in grant support, I am somewhat hesitant about presenting them in this manner because it risks the impression that this is how we measure success at LSI. It is not. In fact, the trend to equate excellence in science with the amount of research funding, presumably to incent more grant getting, is a dangerous one that needs to be actively resisted by anyone passionate about discovery.  

Read the full column 

LSI Achievement in Grants, Publications, and Awards    

Life Sciences Institute statistics show that its faculty members are highly competitive for grant funding, publications, and awards. These metrics were gathered recently in connection with a self-study that LSI conducted for its strategic assessment, a periodic evaluation of units conducted by the Provost's office.

Grant Success

Since inception, the LSI faculty success rate in grant awards (of all types) has averaged 41%. On NIH RO1 type grants, we have a 42% success rate as compared to the average success rate for NIH RO1-type grants of 22%. RO1 grants are the main funding source for the labs of most successful scientists. They are peer-reviewed and are extremely competitive. There are 38 active RO1 grants in the LSI, an average of 1.52 per faculty member, which is especially significant given that the majority of LSI faculty members are at the assistant professor level.  

 Read the full story 

As the LSI heads towards its 10th anniversary in 2013, we wanted to spend a few minutes with some of our Leadership Council members to get their take on who we are and where we're going. First up is LSI Leadership Council Chair and President and CEO of Vega Therapeutics, Craig Parker.

What keeps you so passionate about the LSI?

There is one characteristic of the LSI that I think embodies many of the goals and aspirations of collaborative science that keeps me passionate: the young
faculty. They are keenly interested in collaborating and savvy to the world outside their own discipline. Many of the young scientists who have joined the LSI over the last eight years have had offers from other top universities but have chosen the LSI specifically to be in a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration. Their enthusiasm for science and desire to work across traditional boundaries inspires my passion for the LSI.

Read the full interview

Rudenko lab solves structure of large protein essential for organizing the neural synapse
Genes related to this protein implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders    

LSI faculty member Gabrielle Rudenko and her lab have solved the structure of a large complex protein that is central to how synapses are assembled in neural communication.  

The structure revealed by Rudenko's lab shows how the molecule combines rigid and flexible scaffold-like properties together with interchangeable regions in order to bind and organize different proteins in the important space between the membranes of two communicating neurons called the synaptic cleft. The gene that encodes the cell-surface protein solved by Rudenko, called neurexin 1 alpha, is implicated in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders including: autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and mental retardation.

The protein structure in question is neurexin 1 alpha, which is a very large and complex protein. Neurexins are cell-surface proteins that are found exclusively in the brain and play a role in mediating the organization and adhesion of synapses.   

Synapses are the physical contact and communication points between neurons, and are made up of the presynaptic membrane, the postsynaptic membrane and the space between them called the synaptic cleft. Alpha-neurexins are found predominantly bound to the pre-synaptic membrane. Their very large extracellular regions, which contain more than 1,400 residues and nine domains, protrude into the synaptic cleft and bind to a number of different important synaptic proteins.

Neurexins undergo a process called alternative splicing where the messenger RNA gets modified and the result is that the encoded protein has extra amino acids at a number of very specific sites in the extracellular region of the protein. There are thousands of different splice forms and it is known that the presence or absence of different splice inserts at these sites changes the protein partner recognition profile of neurexins and the protein partners with which they can interact with in the synaptic cleft.

"When we solved the structure, which was just a monster because of its size and the crystallographic system the protein crystals happened to grow in, what became immediately clear was that the extracellular domain of neurexin 1 alpha has many characteristic structural properties that make it a good molecule to be a synaptic organizer," says Rudenko.  

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Q&A with Aaron Westfall
LSI's Chief of Business Research Development    

Aaron Westfall has been with the LSI for just over a year now. Prior to joining the LSI, Aaron was at U-M's Ross School of Business, an environment a bit different than the labs here at the Life Sciences Institute, where lab coats are the norm rather than suit coats. Here are his thoughts on his first months with the LSI.  

What is the most important thing you've learned about the LSI so far?  

The energy of this place is amazing. Our institutional ethos of collaboration and breaking down traditional barriers creates an opportunity for all of us to look at things very differently, no matter what our role is at the Institute. I hear the expression from many of our faculty that they "see things that no one else sees." To be a part of this place is something special, if you can tap into that creative energy, it will change you and how you look at things whether you are an administrator, a scientist, or a donor.

What do you think is the LSI's most distinguishing feature?
LSI scientists are committed to excellence in everything they do, and one of the main things they do is collaborate with other scientists.

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The Latest LSI News & Research 

Georgios Skiniotis named 2011 Pew Scholar; Adds to LSI's Impressive List of Pew Grantees

Mi Hee Lim's lab receives grant and visit from the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative: PHOTOSTORY