Basic science under threat: Lessons from the Skirball Institute

Agnel Sfeir; Gord Fishell; Alexander F Schier; Michael L Dustin; Wen-Biao Gan; Alexandra Joyner; Ruth Lehmann; David Ron; David Roth; William S Talbot; Deborah Yelon; Arturo Zychlinsky

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.008

Basic science under threat: Lessons from the Skirball Institute

Cell. 2022 Mar 3;185(5):755-758. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.008.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, MSKCC, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: sfeira@mskcc.org.
² Department of Neurobiology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Electronic address: gordon_fishell@hms.harvard.edu.
³ Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: alex.schier@unibas.ch.
⁴ Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁵ Institute of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, China.
⁶ Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, MSKCC, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Whitehead Institute, Department of Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.
⁹ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹¹ Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
¹² Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany.

PMID: 35245477
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.008

Abstract

Support for basic science has been eclipsed by initiatives aimed at specific medical problems. The latest example is the dismantling of the Skirball Institute at NYU School of Medicine. Here, we reflect on the achievements and mission underlying the Skirball to gain insight into the dividends of maintaining a basic science vision within the academic enterprises.

MeSH terms

Academies and Institutes*
Biomedical Research*
Schools, Medical