Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This project was supported by the Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG02-07ER46378, the National Science Foundation under Award No. CHE-0554275, the Department of Health and Human Services under Award No. N01-OD-4-2139, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund under Award No. 1007560, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement under Award No. 7827. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-14751-4
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-14751-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010921434
Cover: Work at the intersection of the life sciences and the physical sciences has often been depicted in new ways of imaging or modeling biological specimens, some of which are illustrated on the cover: (1) three-dimensional distribution of membrane proteins within a cell revealed through iPALM imaging (courtesy of Harald F. Hess, Howard Hughes Medical Institute); (2) xylose isomerase crystal (courtesy of Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Research (BER)-funded neutron Protein Crystallography Station at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)); (3) simulation of confinement of DNA in viral capsid (courtesy of Molecular Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Research Group, University of Wisconsin at Madison); (4) diffusion tension imaging of the human brain (courtesy of Thomas Schultz, University of Chicago); (5) chromosome pairs; (6) modeled structure for the enzyme D-xylose isomerase (courtesy of Department of Energy BER-funded neutron Protein Crystallography Station at LANL; (7) anglerfish ovary obtained using autofluorescence (courtesy of James E. Hayden, Wistar Institute, Philadelphia); and (8) rat cerebellum obtained using two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy (courtesy of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at the University of California at San Diego and the National Institutes of Health.
IMAGE SOURCES: (1) Harald F. Hess, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; (2) Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Research (BER)-funded neutron Protein Crystallography Station at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); (3) Molecular Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Research Group, University of Wisconsin at Madison; (4) Thomas Schultz, University of Chicago; (6) Department of Energy BER-funded neutron Protein Crystallography Station at LANL; (7) James E. Hayden, Wistar Institute, Philadelphia; and (8) National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at the University of California at San Diego and the National Institutes of Health.
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Copyright 2010 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
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The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE PHYSICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES
ERIN K. O’SHEA, Co-Chair,
Harvard University
PETER G. WOLYNES, Co-Chair,
University of California at San Diego
ROBERT H. AUSTIN,
Princeton University
BONNIE L. BASSLER,
Princeton University
CHARLES R. CANTOR,
Sequenom, Inc.
WILLIAM F. CARROLL,
Occidental Chemical Corporation
THOMAS R. CECH,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
CHRISTOPHER B. FIELD,
Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology
GRAHAM R. FLEMING,
University of California at Berkeley
ROBERT J. FULL,
University of California at Berkeley
SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
LAURA L. KIESSLING,
University of Wisconsin at Madison
CHARLES M. LOVETT, JR.,
Williams College
DIANNE NEWMAN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MONICA OLVERA de la CRUZ,
Northwestern University
JOSÉ N. ONUCHIC,
University of California at San Diego
GREGORY A. PETSKO,
Brandeis University
ASTRID PRINZ,
Emory University
CHARLES V. SHANK,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (retired)
BORIS I. SHRAIMAN,
University of California at Santa Barbara
H. EUGENE STANLEY,
Boston University
GEORGE M. WHITESIDES,
Harvard University
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
FRANCES E. SHARPLES, Director,
Board on Life Sciences
DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director,
Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
ADAM P. FAGEN, Senior Program Officer,
Board on Life Sciences
JAMES C. LANCASTER, Program Officer,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
KATHRYN J. HUGHES, Program Officer,
Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
NATALIA MELCER, Program Officer,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
LAVITA COATES-FOGLE, Senior Program Assistant
SOLID STATE SCIENCES COMMITTEE
BARBARA JONES, Chair,
IBM Almaden Research Center
MONICA OLVERA de la CRUZ, Vice-Chair,
Northwestern University
DANIEL AROVAS,
University of California at San Diego
COLLIN L. BROHOLM,
The Johns Hopkins University
PAUL CHAIKIN,
New York University
GEORGE CRABTREE,
Argonne National Laboratory
ANDREA J. LIU,
University of Pennsylvania
JOSEPH ORENSTEIN,
University of California at Berkeley
ARTHUR P. RAMIREZ,
LGS, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, and Columbia University
RICHARD A. REGISTER,
Princeton University
MARK STILES,
National Institute of Standards and Technology
DALE J. VAN HARLINGEN,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FRED WUDL,
University of California at Santa Barbara
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director,
Board on Physics and Astronomy
MICHAEL H. MOLONEY, Associate Director
JAMES C. LANCASTER, Program Officer
LAVITA COATES-FOGLE, Senior Program Assistant
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
MARC A. KASTNER, Chair,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ADAM S. BURROWS, Vice-Chair,
University of Arizona
JOANNA AIZENBERG,
Harvard University
JAMES E. BRAU,
University of Oregon
PHILIP H. BUCKSBAUM,
Stanford University
PATRICK L. COLESTOCK,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
RONALD C. DAVIDSON,
Princeton University
ANDREA M. GHEZ,
University of California at Los Angeles
PETER F. GREEN,
University of Michigan
LAURA H. GREENE,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MARTHA P. HAYNES,
Cornell University
JOSEPH HEZIR,
EOP Group, Inc.
MARK KETCHEN,
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
ALLAN H. MacDONALD,
University of Texas at Austin
PIERRE MEYSTRE,
University of Arizona
HOMER A. NEAL,
University of Michigan
JOSE N. ONUCHIC,
University of California at San Diego
LISA J. RANDALL,
Harvard University
CHARLES V. SHANK,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (retired)
MICHAEL S. TURNER,
University of Chicago
MICHAEL C.F. WIESCHER,
University of Notre Dame
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
MICHAEL H. MOLONEY, Associate Director
ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Program Officer
JAMES C. LANCASTER, Program Officer
DAVID B. LANG, Program Officer
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Research Associate
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate
BOARD ON LIFE SCIENCES
KEITH YAMAMOTO, Chair,
University of California at San Francisco
ANN M. ARVIN,
Stanford University
BONNIE L. BASSLER,
Princeton University
VICKI L. CHANDLER,
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
SEAN EDDY,
HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus
MARK D. FITZSIMMONS,
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
DAVID R. FRANZ,
Midwest Research Institute
LOUIS J. GROSS,
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
JO HANDELSMAN,
University of Wisconsin at Madison
CATO T. LAURENCIN,
University of Connecticut
JONATHAN D. MORENO,
University of Pennsylvania
ROBERT M. NEREM,
Georgia Institute of Technology
CAMILLE PARMESAN,
University of Texas at Austin
MURIEL E. POSTON,
Skidmore College
ALISON G. POWER,
Cornell University
BRUCE W. STILLMAN,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
CYNTHIA WOLBERGER,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
MARY WOOLLEY,
Research! America
Staff
FRANCES E. SHARPLES, Director
JO L. HUSBANDS, Scholar/Senior Project Director
ADAM P. FAGEN, Senior Program Officer
ANN H. REID, Senior Program Officer
MARILEE K. SHELTON-DAVENPORT, Senior Program Officer
INDIA HOOK-BARNARD, Program Officer
ANNA FARRAR, Financial Associate
CARL-GUSTAV ANDERSON, Senior Program Assistant
AMANDA P. CLINE, Senior Program Assistant
AMANDA MAZZAWI, Program Assistant
BOARD ON CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
F. FLEMING CRIM, Co-Chair,
University of Wisconsin at Madison
GARY S. CALABRESE, Co-Chair,
Corning, Inc.
BENJAMIN ANDERSON,
Lilly Research Laboratories
PABLO G. DEBENEDETTI,
Princeton University
RYAN R. DIRKX,
Arkema, Inc.
MARY GALVIN-DONOGHUE,
Air Products and Chemicals Materials
PAULA T. HAMMOND,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAROL J. HENRY, Advisor and Consultant
RIGOBERTO HERNANDEZ,
Georgia Institute of Technology
CHARLES E. KOLB,
Aerodyne Research, Inc.
MARTHA A. KREBS,
California Energy Commission
CHARLES T. KRESGE,
Dow Chemical Company
SCOTT J. MILLER,
Yale University
DONALD PROSNITZ,
RAND Corporation
MARK A. RATNER,
Northwestern University
ERIK J. SORENSEN,
Princeton University
WILLIAM C. TROGLER,
University of California at San Diego
THOMAS H. UPTON,
ExxonMobil
Staff
DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director
ANDREW CROWTHER, Postdoctoral Research Associate
KATHRYN J. HUGHES, Program Officer
TINA MASCIANGIOLI, Senior Program Officer
ERICKA McGOWAN, Associate Program Officer
JESSICA L. PULLEN, Administrative Assistant
SHEENA SIDDIQUI, Research Assistant
LYNELLE VIDALE, Project Assistant
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Marlene Belfort, New York State Department of Health
Robert Dimeo, National Institute of Standards and Technology
James Heath, California Institute of Technology
Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, National Institutes of Health
Andrea Liu, University of Pennsylvania
Peter Moore, Yale University
Aravi Samuel, Harvard University
Philip Sharp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Erik Sorensen, Princeton University
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The
review of this report was overseen by W. Carl Lineberger, University of Colorado at Boulder. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
