Profile of Bruce M. Alberts, 2016 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science Awardee

On September 23, 2016, Bruce M. Alberts was presented with the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science, which honored him for “fundamental discoveries in DNA replication and protein biochemistry; for visionary leadership in directing national and international scientific organizations to better people’s lives; and for passionate dedication to improving education in science and mathematics” (1). In presenting the award to Alberts, Lasker Awards Jury Chair Joseph Goldstein compared him to the renowned chef Julia Childs, citing their common “missionary spirit, boundless curiosity, endearing klutziness, and a deep desire to teach and to teach well” (1). What an inspired comparison! The only addendum I would make to that description is “brilliant biochemist and public servant extraordinaire.”

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Bruce Alberts in his office at UCSF, Mission Bay, October 2014. Image courtesy of Christopher Reiger (photographer).

Bruce began his scientific career as a graduate student at Harvard, working with Paul Doty, where he embarked upon his lifelong quest to understand the molecular mechanism of DNA replication. Legend has it that he failed his initial doctoral thesis defense because of a stubborn conviction that DNA could be replicated by a single enzyme, DNA polymerase. After his thesis committee delivered that rude wake-up call, and 6 months of additional work, Bruce passed with flying colors. From that experience he learned that the best experiments are those that provide insight into the biological question being posed, even if the outcome is not the one he either expected or hoped for.

Bruce embarked on his independent career in 1966, first at Princeton University and then at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Having abandoned the one-enzyme hypothesis, he took a cue from the genetics of bacteriophage T4, which implied that DNA replication required at least six gene products. Bruce set about developing techniques to isolate and study those proteins. His development of DNA cellulose as a chromatography scaffold gave Bruce the opening he needed to hit upon his first jackpot: the isolation of the single-stranded DNA binding protein, gene 32 protein, which is essential for DNA replication (2, 3). Five years later he had expanded the jackpot to six proteins, which when added to purified T4 DNA in vitro, could initiate DNA replication (4). Bruce called this complex a “protein machine,” one of the first complex machines to be identified in cells. This work, which built upon the insights of genetics with rigorous biochemical techniques, has been justly recognized as a landmark achievement in biochemistry.

By 1985, as Bruce became Chair of the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department at UCSF, he had begun to direct his restless gaze beyond the bench, in the direction of science education. Bruce embarked upon one of his major contributions to science education, the coauthorship of an enormously influential college-level biology textbook, Molecular Biology of the Cell, which is now in its sixth edition. Together with illustrious coauthors who came from different branches of cell and molecular biology, Bruce set a new standard for clarity in both text and illustrations, by-passing the usual recitation of dry facts for conceptual understanding for how and why biological phenomena work as they do. An entire generation of college graduates now count “Alberts” among their beloved texts. Around the same time, Bruce was founding at UCSF an outreach program for school children in the San Francisco United School District, giving UCSF scientists, students, and fellows opportunities to engage young students in the excitement of scientific inquiry, and providing K–12 teachers with training, resources, and enrichment. This program continues to this day, and is nationally recognized as one of the most successful outreach programs in the country.

Bruce’s inspiration for these initiatives came from conversations with his children, and eventually his grandchildren, who regaled him with their own discouraging experiences with science education, and those conversations continued to motivate him after he became the President of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1993. Promoting good teaching and empowering good teachers became one of Bruce’s signature initiatives at the Academy. He championed the assembly of the National Science Education standards, which encourage hands-on active learning rather than the memorization of facts. Bruce maintained a strong stand in support of the teaching of evolution, providing new resources for teachers and promoting educational programs in the media and science museums.

It seems particularly fitting that Bruce received an award that is linked to the distinguished molecular biologist Daniel Koshland. During his term as president of the NAS, Dan and Bruce collaborated to found the Marion Koshland Science Museum in Washington, DC, named in honor of Dan’s wife Marion, a celebrated immunologist and passionate advocate for public science education. Today the museum provides scientific programming and interactive exhibitions for community members of all ages.

Another of Bruce’s major initiatives at the Academy was to encourage scientists around the globe, particularly in developing countries, who were working in such critically important areas, such as health, agriculture, the environment, education, and energy. To bring greater attention to this work, he helped to found two international networks: the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues, which today is a global organization representing over 100 national academies of sciences, and the InterAcademy Council, which promotes the development of rigorous peer review methodology for science funding and the generation of nonpartisan advice and reports to inform policy. Bruce’s commitment to the development of science abroad continued after his 12-year term concluded at the NAS. As a result of his appointment by President Barack Obama as a scientific envoy to Indonesia, Bruce continues to assist that large Muslim-majority country in developing the Indonesian Science Fund, and promoting exchanges between Indonesian and American scientists. Bruce and his wife Betty are indefatigable world travelers, as anyone who has tried to schedule time with Bruce knows only too well.

Bruce’s service to science did not end with his return to UCSF at the conclusion of his two successful terms at the NAS. In 2007 Bruce served as president of the American Society of Cell Biology and in 2008 he took on the editorship-in-chief of Science magazine. At Science he used the bully pulpit to full effect, writing and speaking out on his recurring theme of the importance of high-quality science education, establishing standards for scientific publishing, developing careers for young scientists, and the role of science in international competitiveness, to name just a few of the issues.

One of the most controversial papers that Bruce published in his career was a 1985 commentary in Cell entitled, “Limits to growth: In biology, small science is good science” (5). In this prescient paper Bruce argued that large laboratories were inherently less efficient and interesting than small ones, in part because the principal investigator had to spend too much time writing grants and reports and managing personnel in the laboratory, and not enough time thinking deeply about the science. Bruce worried that large laboratories were not good training grounds for young scientists, and called on the NIH to establish a formal ceiling on the total funding for investigators. It probably goes without saying that this was not greeted with universal acclaim, including close colleagues at UCSF. Nevertheless, Bruce anticipated by three decades the escalation in the pressures that laboratories face as the growth in the size of academic biomedical research has outpaced the available funding to support it. In 2014 he coauthored a paper calling for reforms in the system (6). Since then Bruce has been outspoken about the crucial role that fundamental research plays in the scientific ecosystem, the importance of creating realistic training for young scientists that lands them in jobs before middle age, and reforming the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to prepare them for the diverse kinds of jobs that will be available to them.

Throughout his distinguished career, Bruce has given generously of his time to organizations that mattered to him, including the NIH, where he served in many volunteer capacities over the years. The advisory committees on which Bruce has served are far too many to enumerate, as are the awards he has received. In addition to the Lasker-Koshland Award, Bruce is the recipient of the NAS Award in Molecular Biology and the Gairdner Foundation Award for his ground-breaking work on the biochemistry of DNA replication, and in 2014 Bruce was honored by President Obama with the National Medal of Science.

If I may end on a personal note, Bruce Alberts has been a friend, mentor, and hero of mine for over 30 years. In 1987 Bruce invited me to serve on the National Research Council’s committee that debated whether the federal government should invest in sequencing the human genome, a committee he chaired. At first as I witnessed Bruce’s approach to directing a committee overflowing with strong personalities with his “endearing klutziness,” I wondered how he would ever orchestrate a final consensus report. Soon I realized that there was method in his madness, and it was clear that Bruce was a conductor of the first rank. I was also immensely impressed with his public spiritedness, which contained no hint of personal agenda or ego. Bruce’s selfless commitment to the commonweal, pursued with gusto over a 50-year career, has inspired many other working scientists to add their voices and effort to effecting good science policy. This is an extraordinary legacy, justly recognized by the Lasker Foundation.