January 2001

Dear Colleagues of the SDB,

It gives me great pleasure to address to you in this new electronic format, and to wish you all a happy and successful 2001. Almost certainly this new year will bring another rich harvest of discoveries in Developmental Biology - some long awaited, some quite unexpected, and others destined to lie fallow for a while until their true significance is recognized. We are indeed really fortunate to be working in a time of such rapid progress and abundance of resources for research and science education, at least in a few privileged countries. I sincerely hope that in 2001 we will be able to translate some of the discoveries and opportunities into benefits for all societies, throughout the world. However, to achieve this goal it is very important that we become more effective in communicating our optimism in a realistic way to the general public and to policy makers. We must also work very hard to inspire more young people to become interested in our work and to understand how science can be a positive force in their lives, to counteract the cynicism and anti-science attitudes that are beginning to hold sway.

There are so many fascinating problems in Developmental Biology that many of us find it hard to stay focused on just one or two. Certainly, any new issue of a journal in our field sets my mind abuzz! One of the greatest challenges for the future is to collect and integrate the vast amounts of data pouring out of labs all over the world. Complexity comes at many different levels, from the organization of transcription factors on the regulatory regions of developmental genes and the integration of intracellular signaling pathways within a single cell, to the interactions between extracellular signaling proteins and their agonists and antagonists in the establishment of morphogenetic fields. Complexity is also evident in the way that cells interact with each other during the formation of limbs, feathers, flowers, hearts and Hydra heads, and in the branching morphogenesis of glandular organs and the neuronal wiring of olfactory organs and the eye. Tremendous advances are being made in all of these problems, but their effective integration will need new paradigms for cooperation ­ not only between individual labs and technology-driven, service-oriented, public and private centers, but also between biologists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers and bioinformaticists. This need has been clearly articulated for plant biologists in the ten-year plan for Arabidopsis research discussed in a recent article in Science (Somerville and Dangle, 2000. Science 290: 2077-2078). One of the goals of the plan is the generation of a virtual plant- a computer model simulating the function and interaction of every gene involved in the growth and development of a flowering plant. A similar vision must drive developmental biologists working with other organisms to build on the pioneering work of scientists like Alan Turing and Hans Meinhardt to generate models for gene and cell interactions in the development of complex structures. The rising tide of information thus carries with it the potential for new horizons and the excitement of travel in uncharted territories. However, there is also the danger that we will feel overwhelmed by the sea of catalogs, databases and microarray printouts. It is important that we remember how to prioritize ideas, and do not loose sight of the effectiveness of simple - even naïve - experiments based on the biology of the system being studied.

The future interactions and cross-fertilization between fields that we all foresee will necessitate changing not only our way of doing science but also our approach to teaching, and training the next generations of students. By "students" I don’t just mean undergraduates and high school students. Capturing the imagination of kindergarten-age children is crucial too! This outreach will require coherent and joint efforts between individual scientists and teachers, and institutions such as universities, government agencies and industry. Each of us will have to take responsibility for contributing something towards building for the future. So, please do go out and talk at your local schools, or invite the students to visit your lab. "Think global, act local" also applies to our willingness to stand up and be counted when there is the need for balanced discussion of topics like risks of genetically engineered organisms (for an interesting and useful overview, see Wolfenbarger and Phifer, 2000. Science 290: 2088-2093). One step towards increasing our influence as scientists was SDB’s move to join the Federation of Societies in Experimental Biology (FASEB) a few years ago. We have now become a full member of the Federation (links to "EO’s Message" and "FASEB President’s Message"). Together, we can work towards improving the practice and communication of biological sciences and preserving the free exchange of knowledge and collegiality necessary for to translate basic research into practical benefits.

There have been two particular highlights of the past year. The first is the continuation of spectacular advances in the sequencing of the genomes of different organisms. Almost complete sequences for yeast, C. elegans, Drosophila and Arabidopsis are now publicly available, and rough drafts of the human genome, as well as almost complete sequence of two chromosomes, are also available (link). Progress is being made towards public drafts of mouse sequences and now zebrafish. The conflicts between Celera and the Human Genome Project about access to human DNA sequence data have brought into sharp perspective the sometimes conflicting goals of research in the public and private sectors. In addition, there are now many biotech companies applying Developmental Biology to the discovery of potential therapeutic agents. These companies are very well funded and highly motivated, and are generating a great deal of information and tools such as transgenic and knockout mice that could be extremely helpful to researchers in academic labs. One challenge for the future will be tackle the problem of material transfer agreements (MTAs) slowing down, or even preventing, the easy flow of discoveries in either direction.

The second highlight of the year has been the tremendous explosion of information about stem cells ­ both pluripotent stem cells derived from human embryos and germ cells, and stem cells derived by manipulating a variety of adult tissues. The latter include cells that have been "reprogrammed" or have undergone "transdifferentiation" so that they can generate descendants in a far wider range of specialized tissue types than originally thought possible. Study of the reprogramming of adult cells ­ identifying which cells can be changed, and the mechanisms involved ­ is clearly going to be a "hot topic" for 2001 and will throw light on a whole range of topics relevant to the determination and maintenance of cell fate in the normal embryo. All this new knowledge about stem cells, both embryonic and adult, and their potential therapeutic use has brought to the forefront many ethical issues. Questions about the appropriateness of using human embryos in excess of clinical need for stem cell harvesting and culturing; about the nature of informed consent; about ownership of cell lines and discoveries made with them; about the role of the government in regulating embryo research, have been raised and are being discussed by groups in many countries. The Society for Developmental Biology has taken the stand to support the National Institutes of Health (U.S.A.) Guidelines on the Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells (www.nih.gov/news/stemcell/NOT-OD-00-050.html). We believe that the enormous potentials these embryonic cells offer to further our understanding of normal human development and to provide cell therapies for terribly disabilitating diseases need to be pursued, under ethically appropriate and regulated conditions.

I hope that we will all have a chance to discuss these new facets of science applied to Developmental Biology at the upcoming SDB 60^th Annual Meeting, to be held July 18-22, 2001 at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Please check the SDB Website for the program and its updates, submit your exciting new findings, and be part of the action!

Finally, I should like to give a few words of encouragement to members of the SDB for whom 2001 will not be an easy year: scientists from minority groups who feel they lack role models; colleagues for whom English is not their native language faced with writing papers and grants; couples juggling the relentless demands of experiments and young children. For whatever reason, there are many of these people amongst us ­ perhaps on the next bench ­ and they need our support. At the same time we should not forget colleagues throughout the world who face difficulties we can hardly begin to imagine: women in Afghanistan struggling to give their daughters even a minimal education; teachers and researchers in South Africa working to overcome years of educational neglect; scientists in war-torn countries without access to either labs or libraries. Please put out a helping hand to all of them, in any way you can.

Brigid Hogan