Dear colleagues,
The days are getting longer, the chill is mostly gone from the air, and much of the campus landscape is blooming and beginning to leaf out. With the Lulu C. and Anthony Wang Gardens now in their fourth spring, the perennials on the River Campus rooftop are mature and the grasses and trees have filled in nicely. It’s truly a beautiful space and it’s a pleasure to see people out and about on sunny afternoons.
This week’s leak of a draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn 50 years of federal protection of women’s reproductive autonomy has been distressing to many on campus and across the country; this decision would have enormous impact to increase health inequality. This likely outcome underscores the need to be vigilant in protecting human rights, and voting is a critical element in that equation.
The COVID roller coaster continues to disrupt our daily lives and plans. From a low of 5 cases in our community in the previous 14 days at the end of February, cases rose again to a peak of 57 cases in 14 days in mid-April when the BA.2 variant emerged, then came down to a plateau of 44 in the end of April and are now rising again, reaching 56 cases over the last 14 days. These high rates have resulted in several cases in the CFC that have resulted in room closures, as required by the department of health. Despite everyone being vaccinated, OHS indicates that more than 80% of recent cases are symptomatic. Fortunately, no one has required hospitalization. This latest rise in cases reflects the arrival of the BA.2.12.1 variant, which now accounts for more than 60% of new cases in our area. Each successive strain has been more infectious than its predecessor, substantially due to further mutations in the spike protein providing better evasion of pre-existing antibodies. Each wave we have experienced on campus has closely paralleled ebbs and flows in NYC, with Manhattan currently having the highest case burden in the city, rising to ~60 new cases per 100,000 for the last few days (data from NY state database). New York, New Jersey and the states of New England are now all in the top 10 for per capita COVID cases in the US. While hospitalizations are significantly less frequent now than with waves of cases last year, NY has the second highest hospitalization rate in the nation. If there is good news, it’s that the high level of vaccination and high level of prior infection has provided a level of immunity that has generally prevented severe disease and death, with ICU admissions and death largely confined to the unvaccinated population, though people who are immunocompromised and/or are elderly are also at increased risk.
After discussion at the Research Restart Committee meeting yesterday, there was no enthusiasm to stop mandatory testing. Testing has prevented people who are infected from spreading the virus on campus. There was discussion of reducing isolation time for those who become infected, allowing those who are asymptomatic or whose symptoms have resolved and have negative rapid antigen tests to be allowed to return to work wearing masks, potentially allowing earlier return to work. With current case numbers high and rising on campus, there was consensus that this is not the right time to change the requirement for masking indoors (see here for the latest masking policy). OHS reported that of 10 recent cases believed to have been acquired on campus, 9 of them occurred in the setting of maskless contact with coworkers, and one was believed to occur with 12 hours shared in a small room and wearing of a cloth mask. The significant impact of COVID on campus life and culture was discussed. The continued unpredictable emergence of new variant viruses causing new surges of cases is immensely frustrating. Ideas for promoting more activities outdoors on campus, where maskless transmission is extremely rare, and for allowing larger numbers of visitors on campus were discussed.
Before leaving this overly long discussion on COVID, I want to recognize the tremendous contributions of Ann Campbell, who has led the OHS COVID effort which has done so much to get us safely through the pandemic. From early days of testing, to getting RU access to vaccinations, and the endless efforts in advising and monitoring people with COVID along with contact tracing, it has been a monumental task. Sadly for us, today is Ann’s last day at Rockefeller as she and her family are moving to California for family reasons. We are immensely grateful and indebted to Ann and extend our very best wishes for her future success and happiness. We are fortunate that Janica Barnett and her team in OHS are well-prepared to continue to provide dedicated service to the community.
Moving on to academic news, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the tremendous success of this year’s open faculty search. As mentioned in my last e-mail, in early March we announced that Lamia Wahba, who studies Piwi proteins and piRNAs in germline cells, had accepted our offer to join the faculty. More recently, Jiankun “JK” Lyu, has also accepted our offer to join the faculty. Currently a postdoc in Brian Soichet’s lab at the University of California, San Francisco, JK has developed robust methods for virtual screening for small molecules that bind to specific sites on proteins. This method can screen vastly more chemical space than ‘wet lab’ screens and can streamline the identification of small molecules for uses ranging from chemical biology to clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. JK will be a terrific addition to our faculty and will be arriving on January 1. We are truly fortunate to be adding these two exceptional scientists to our community. Many thanks to Nat Heintz, who did a superb job chairing this year’s Open Faculty Search, and to the 31 members of the search committee whose diligent work led us to this result.
On the subject of recruitment, I’m pleased to report that we will be welcoming 32 outstanding new Ph.D. students in the David Rockefeller Graduate Program to campus in the fall. This group includes 18 women, 6 URM students, a total of 8 students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and 17 international students. We are indebted to Sid Strickland, Emily Harms and Andrea Morris and their colleagues in the Dean’s office, as well as all the faculty and students who were dedicated in this year’s admissions and recruitment process.
While on the topic of the graduate school, I’m pleased to report that Tim Stearns, our recently announced incoming Dean and Vice President for Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies, has set an arrival date of September 1, just in time to kick off the new academic year. We will be celebrating Sid Strickland’s outstanding accomplishments in this role over 20 years in the coming weeks and months.
I’m also pleased to report that our colleague Sohail Tavazoie, Head of the Laboratory of System Cancer Biology, has been elected President of The American Society for Clinical Investigation, the country’s largest organization of physician-scientists. Sohail will serve as President for the next year. ASCI is a prestigious organization with numerous Rockefeller HOLs among its membership and a history dating back to 1925. Sohail will be an exceptional leader of this distinguished organization.
Although the recent string of faculty awards, promotions, and recruitments has been notable, this has also been an active period in terms of University events. On April 7 we presented the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing About Science to Jennifer L. Eberhardt in a thrilling in-person event! Jennifer brought compelling stories, one of which was from her childhood: Growing up Black in a white-majority neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, she struggled to tell her friends apart—a phenomenon well known to others who are surrounded by faces from racial groups other than their own. From this early observation grew an entire research program devoted to the study of how race influences our judgments of others, and to combating racial injustice. She has held faculty appointments at both Yale and Stanford, and her 2019 book Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do takes a deep dive into the science that underlies unconscious bias. Her April 7 talk, like her book, was riveting.
And on April 14, we celebrated the unveiling of a portrait of five women Rockefeller scientists from our early history, which now hangs above the fireplace in the Abby Lounge. This painting, commissioned using funds raised by the Women & Science Initiative and WISeR, the student- and postdoc-led group devoted to promoting women in science, features Marie M. Daly, Rebecca Lancefield, Louise Pearce, Gertrude E. Perlmann, and Florence Sabin, all women who made tremendous contributions to biomedicine. Audrey Harnagel and Leslie Vosshall spoke eloquently on behalf of the Portrait Initiative Committee in describing the origins of the project, the selection of the artist and about the accomplishments of the amazing women represented in the portrait. It was also a thrill to hear from the artist herself, Brenda Zlamany, a gifted painter based in Brooklyn who blends old world and contemporary styles. Hearing her description of the meticulous process by which she designed the portrait, incorporated period clothing and jewelry and used historical instrumentation was fascinating. I urge you stop by and see this remarkable piece of art in person when you have a chance.
Looking ahead, next week we will mark the 25th year of Rockefeller’s Women & Science program with an anniversary luncheon for University friends and benefactors. The Women & Science luncheon is a ritual of the spring calendar, raising funds to support female faculty, postdocs, and students, as well as funds for research in areas such as cancer, global health, and neuroscience. This year’s speaker will be Priya Rajasethupathy, who will speak about her fascinating research on mechanisms of memory.
And in just over a month from now, on June 9, we will hold Convocation, which we plan to hold in person in Caspary Auditorium, for the first time since 2019. We will present Ph.D.s to 40 students who have completed their graduate training and also award honorary degrees to three extraordinary individuals. Two of these are true heroes of the COVID pandemic: Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, and Katalin Karikó, Ph.D., senior vice president at BioNTech and adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. The third is the equally remarkable Lulu C. Wang, founder and CEO of Tupelo Capital Management and an exceptionally dedicated Trustee Emerita of The Rockefeller University.
Also looking ahead, on a wistful note, we will soon be losing our long-time chief financial officer, Jim Lapple, who has overseen our financial operations for 18 years. As I noted in my e-mail earlier this week, Jim is one of a kind, and his wise and steady leadership has allowed our science to flourish in both good times and in the face of severe financial challenges such as those resulting from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID pandemic. We wish Jim well as he takes on new challenges at the University of Florida Scripps Biomedical Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida. We are currently launching a national search for his successor, who will have very large shoes to fill.
Finally this week, please allow me to draw your attention to the spring 2022 issue of Seek, the University’s award-winning research magazine, which will be in mailboxes and available on racks in the CRC lobby in the next week. This issue features a cover story on stem cell science at Rockefeller, interviews with Sebastian Klinge and Cori Bargmann, a feature story on the Jarvis lab, and much more. Congratulations to Communications and Public Affairs on another terrific issue!
See you at Convocation! In the meantime, 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
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