What is the MBL's Secret Sauce?
What is the secret sauce of the MBL -- the ingredients that make it a hotbed for scientific discovery? At least 63 Nobel laureates have pursued science in MBL labs or classrooms. What has been the draw?
Every scientist lucky enough to spend time at MBL may have a different answer to this question. But over and over, we hear common themes.
One is the “transformative” nature of the MBL’s Advanced Research Training Courses, which immerse participants in a creative, intense, curiosity-driven environment for exploring cutting-edge scientific questions and problems.
A second distinctive hallmark is the MBL’s “convening power”: Through the Whitman Center, scientists from many different institutions can come together to collaborate in the MBL’s labs, for weeks or months at a time.
And sometimes, those two special attributes of MBL intersect. An example is the discovery of biomolecular condensates in the 2008 MBL Physiology course. As the general significance of that observation began to emerge, a five-year, collaborative “HHMI Summer Institute” at MBL convened more than 70 scientists from around the world. Collectively, they defined and drove the exciting new field of biomolecular condensates. Today, an interdisciplinary collaboration at MBL led by Michael Rosen of UT Southwestern continues to break new ground in the field.
Cliff Brangwynne, now faculty at Princeton University, was a teaching assistant in the 2008 Physiology course where the condensate discovery occurred. He returned to MBL to follow up on the discovery, including as a researcher HHMI Summer Institute.
In the video above, Brangwynne describes the “magical” 2008 observation in the Physiology course, which he now co-directs with Amy Gladfelter of Duke University, and reflects on the impact of the MBL on his career.