Dear colleagues,

It’s officially spring! We’re seeing beautiful weather punctuated by blustery, rainy days. It has been great to see people enjoying time outside on the Bass patio and in the Sze amphitheater, and also spending time after-hours at the Faculty and Students Club and on the tennis court. Moreover, having in-person seminars, meetings, and concerts has been a most welcome relief from the isolation we’ve endured through the fall and winter.

In the news, this week’s Senate confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, have been historic. The hearings have been inspirational, revealing that she is immensely qualified, has a deep command of the law, has the highest levels of integrity, and is an unusually clear communicator. As importantly, she brings a unique perspective to the Court, having served not only as a federal judge for 10 years, but before that as a federal public defender and as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The hearings, however, have also been maddening, as a number of senators were insufferable in trying to portray her as “soft on crime” and repeatedly – and disingenuously – harangued her about her judicial sentencing record, despite data that in fact shows she is well within the judicial mainstream. Her poise, conviction, and clarity under this demagoguery was the epitome of “judicial temperament,” and provides strong evidence that she is more than ready for this new role. Her confirmation will be a cause for celebration.

This week has also witnessed further escalation of the barbaric Russian attack on Ukraine, with targeting of civilians and massive destruction of hospitals and population centers in large cities. We reiterate our prior condemnation (read it here) of this unprovoked and unlawful invasion and urge our government to do everything possible to bring this outrageous humanitarian tragedy to an end. More locally, please join me in providing comfort and aid to those among us who are experiencing personal distress due to these events.

Regarding COVID, after new infections plummeted from 187 over 14 days in early January to a low of 5 by the end of February, numbers have consistently climbed in March, reaching 24 over the last 14 days. NYC has also seen a marked increase in cases, rising by 50% over the last two weeks. This parallels the arrival of the BA.2 variant – a descendent of Omicron – that is even more contagious and has spread across the globe and sparked surges in case numbers throughout much of Asia and Europe and is rapidly increasing in NY and across the country. Indeed, countries that previously successfully controlled viral spread by aggressive testing, contact tracing, and quarantine, have seen case numbers increase to unheard of peaks. For example, Korea, which has previously done extremely well in controlling the virus, is now experiencing 100-fold higher case numbers than any previous peak, accompanied by all-time highs in COVID deaths as well. Much of Europe abruptly eliminated most COVID precautions and never saw the steep decline in cases that the U.S. did, and cases have gone back up in these countries with the emergence of BA.2. While vaccination plus booster shots have proved effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths from Omicron and BA.2, these variants are dangerous to those who don’t have prior immunity. This is particularly clear from the surge of cases in Hong Kong, where vaccination in the elderly is only ~50% and lethality from infection in this group is 12%, a rate we haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic. If there is any good news in this, it’s that COVID hospitalizations in NYC have not increased thus far, suggesting that a very high fraction of the population has been either vaccinated or survived natural infection, or both.

We continue to closely monitor cases on campus and in NYC and urge everyone to take appropriate precautions in the face of the rising risk of infection – if you are on public transportation or in a crowd indoors, wear a high-quality mask. I remind everyone that weekly testing remains mandatory for all those working on-site, and testing twice per week is strongly encouraged given that case numbers on campus are high and rising. Although we are all eager for the pandemic to be behind us, we need to stay aware and react to conditions as they evolve.

Moving on to academic news, I’m thrilled that this year’s open search has resulted thus far in the recruitment of Lamia Wahba, who has accepted our offer to join the faculty. Lamia, working in Andy Fire’s lab at Stanford, has shown how Piwi proteins and piRNAs – a somewhat mysterious system that targets specific RNAs for degradation in the germline – protect germline cells: Lamia discovered that they prevent accumulation of ribosomal RNA fragments that inhibit ribosome biogenesis and over many generations lead to infertility. Lamia is a creative and highly original scientist who will make a tremendous addition to our faculty.

It is also a pleasure to celebrate the promotions of Kivanç Birsoy and Shixin Liu to associate professor. Kivanç has made a series of novel discoveries of how cancer cells rewire their metabolism to adapt to the often oxygen- and nutrient-poor environments of tumors. Shixin has done remarkable studies revealing the intricate mechanisms of the molecular machines that replicate and transcribe chromosomal DNA. If you have not yet done so, please join me congratulating these remarkable scientists on their success. I know we all look forward to the future chapters of great science coming from each of their laboratories.

As you may know, March is Women’s History Month, and I’d like to take a moment to highlight the Women & Science Portrait Initiative to bring more attention to the remarkable women scientists who were affiliated with Rockefeller in our early history. WISeR, the student- and postdoc-led group devoted to promoting women in science, has worked with the Development Office on this project, and together they raised funds to commission a portrait featuring five of the University’s notable female scientists. The portrait, completed by the artist Brenda Zlamany, will be unveiled at a ceremony on April 14 (more information on the event can be found here). It will be permanently displayed above the fireplace in the lounge of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall. Many thanks to the leadership committee for this wonderful initiative: Cynthia Altman, Audrey Harnagel, Jane Katcher (Chair), Stephanie Marcus, Marnie Pillsbury, and Leslie Vosshall, who worked with Marnie Imhoff, Laurel Birch, Amanda Martinez, and their colleagues in the Development Office.

The women featured are exceptional: Marie M. Daly, who discovered the “acidic” histone proteins and contributed to the discovery of the link between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease; Rebecca Lancefield, a prominent microbiologist who classified beta-hemolytic streptococcal bacteria, which cause a variety of diseases in humans and animals; Louise Pearce, the Rockefeller Institute’s first woman scientist, who worked on the development of the first effective drug for the treatment of trypanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness) and led its pivotal clinical trials in the Belgian Congo; Gertrude E. Perlmann, who discovered the structure of pepsin and pepsinogen; and Florence Sabin, Rockefeller’s first female professor, who was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences for her studies on tuberculosis and later received the Lasker Public Service Award for her contributions to public health in her home state of Colorado. Congratulations to all who have been involved in bringing this terrific project to fruition!

Lastly, as the weather warms and the campus and Central Park come into bloom, I hope you take some time to get out and enjoy spring. And please continue to take care of yourselves and one another.

Sincerely,

Rick

Richard P. Lifton, M.D., Ph.D.
Carson Family Professor
Laboratory of Human Genetics and Genomics
President
The Rockefeller University