"We have been developing the concept of this unique research campus for some time, and it is gratifying to see it come to life," says HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. "Janelia Farm will be a distinctive, exciting, collaborative place for chemists, physicists, computer scientists and engineers, who may not even speak the language of biology, to share their expertise and invent new technologies that will propel biomedical research long into the future." Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) Janelia Farm Research Campus is a unique, world-class biomedical research complex under construction in Ashburn, Va. When completed in early 2006, it will be home to a broad range of scientific programs that will represent the boldest steps yet in HHMI's half-century quest to speed the development and application of new tools for transforming the study of biology and medicine. Construction crews already have begun shaping earth at the site, a 281-acre parcel in Loudoun County, Va. It will be converted into an advanced research center that will serve as an intellectual hub for several hundred prominent scientists from diverse disciplines. They will work together in multidisciplinary teams to solve challenging biological problems that are difficult to address in existing research settings. HHMI expects to spend about $500 million to construct the campus and put its scientific programs in place. The initial construction will provide the laboratories to accommodate a permanent research staff of 200 to 300. However, other laboratories and facilities will be built for visiting researchers, too, as well as for core scientific support staff and administration. All told, Janelia Farm will include about 760,000 square feet of space, housing the research laboratories and support areas, a conference center and transient housing for more than 100 visitors. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held on May 5, 2003 at the site of the new campus, which lies along the Potomac River near Leesburg, Va. HHMI purchased the Janelia Farm property (whose composite name recalls the two daughters, Jane and Cornelia, of the former owner) in 2000. Programs to Stress Collaboration in Groundbreaking Research The scientific programs at Janelia Farm will be designed to further collaboration and flexibility among scientists. Research teams will be kept small and team leaders will be expected to stay actively involved in bench research, not just manage it or guide it. The architectural design of the Janelia Farm buildings and its laboratories will respond to these same objectives, with both work and relaxation areas designed to promote interaction and collegiality — and discourage isolation. The project represents another major step toward achieving HMMI's long-term objective of offering creative scientists freedom from constraints that limit their ability to do groundbreaking research. The campus and its scientific program will closely complement HHMI's longstanding investigator program. That program currently consists of more than 300 researchers at 70 universities throughout the United States, who have the freedom and flexibility to push the bounds of knowledge in some of the most important areas of biomedical research. Borrowing from Bell Labs and the Medical Research Council In planning Janelia Farm, HHMI carefully studied the structure and "scientific culture" of other important research models at both academic and for-profit biomedical laboratories, including the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England and Bell Laboratories in the United States. Flexibility is a key emphasis of the scientific program — flexibility in both the design of the research facility and in the program itself. Although the scientific program structure for Janelia Farm is still under development and subject to change, the core objectives are clear: HHMI is committed to creating a distinctive research environment, launching it with a nucleus of distinguished scientists in place, and creating opportunities for rapid and effective response to emerging areas in science. Janelia Farm's two primary scientific agendas include establishing an ongoing research program at the interface between emerging technologies and their application to biomedical problems, as well as making available project-oriented "surge" space where visitors can come together and use new technologies to solve problems. Currently, there is no well-equipped laboratory facility in the world where a group of scientists can come together, each bringing some members of their research group, to work for periods ranging from a few weeks to several years. Janelia Farm alone will fulfill that need by providing the facilities, finances and freedom for scientists to pursue research under such conditions, without distraction. Rafael Viñoly Architects Design Complex The lead architect for the Janelia Farm project, Rafael Viñoly, heads a 105-member, New York City-based architectural firm, Rafael Viñoly Architects. Viñoly's prior projects include the Tokyo International Forum, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the National Neuroscience Research Center, which will be located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition, Viñoly was a leader of the THINK team, one of two finalists in the architectural competition to design a plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in New York. Viñoly's firm was selected from a slate of distinguished architects participating in an architectural charette at HHMI in late 2001. The charette involved a series of collaborative meetings between the architects and HHMI planning groups where participants shared and discussed ideas about the project. The charette followed an initial planning phase that was led by the Institute's Janelia Farm Strategic Planning Committee, which in turn relied on the advice of Institute Medical Advisory Board members, HHMI investigators, and other renowned scientists and science administrators. As a result of this process, the architectural designs of the buildings and the laboratories are aimed at achieving both of Janelia Farm's central objectives — collaboration and flexibility. Thus, design is guided by three principles HHMI has gleaned from its considerable experience in creating successful work environments for scientists: Understand the researchers' needs versus their preferences; Keep work spaces standardized and rational, and Make the spaces adaptable over time to accommodate changes in research. Viñoly's vision for the site includes a "landscape building" that emerges gracefully from the sloping hillside. The main building will be a low-rise, terraced structure that conforms to the topography of the surrounding landscape and preserves views of the nearby countryside. One of the goals of the building's design is to maximize interaction between scientists. HHMI's design philosophy, which comes from years of developing laboratories at many major research institutions, is to create good, flexible laboratory workspace with an efficient floorplan that promotes interaction. HHMI Planning Team Gerald Rubin, HHMI's vice president and director of planning for Janelia Farm, David Clayton, HHMI's vice president and chief scientific officer, and Robert H. McGhee, HHMI architect and senior facilities officer, have worked closely with the architect. Clayton joined the Institute in 1996 from Stanford University, where he was a professor of pathology and developmental biology and associate director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. In 2000, Clayton assumed responsibility for long-term planning for the Institute's science program and led the early phases of planning for the Janelia Farm campus. Rubin, who was named an HHMI investigator at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987, is the internationally recognized scientist who led the effort to sequence the entire genome of the fruit fly, Drosophila, and has been active in determining the functions of fruit fly genes having homology to human genes. He currently directs planning for the Janelia Farm campus. McGhee, a planner of biomedical labs since 1971, has overseen or advised on hundreds of lab renovations and construction projects, including those at the Beckman Center at Stanford University, the Bass Building at Yale University, the Eccles Center for Human Genetics at the University of Utah, and at the Mission Bay Campus of the University of California, San Francisco. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute was established in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist. HHMI's principal mission is conducting basic biomedical research. Currently more than 300 HHMI investigators direct Institute research laboratories on the campuses of universities and other research organizations throughout the United States. HHMI provides freedom and flexibility for its investigators, who continue to push the bounds of knowledge in many of the hottest areas in biomedical research. The Institute also has a philanthropic grants program of approximately $90 million per year, which it devotes to science education and training, from elementary school through graduate and medical school. It also supports the work of biomedical researchers in many countries around the globe. HHMI is one of the largest philanthropies in the world, with an endowment of more than $10 billion and a budget that is approximately $620 million in the current fiscal year. Its headquarters are located in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. For Further Information: Avice Meehan Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Howard Hughes Medical Institute (301) 215-8646 meehana@hhmi.org James E. Keeley, Jr. Associate Director of Communications Howard Hughes Medical Institute (301) 215-8858 keeleyj@hhmi.org