About the Institute

WHAT SETS ICDB APART

Membership in the Institute Is Highly Selective
Only 50 faculty researchers of 250 potentially eligible faculty have been invited to participate. Honors received by Institute members include membership in the National Academy of Sciences, selection as Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, Guggenhiem Foundation Fellows, Pew Scholars, and receipt of NIH Merit, Achievement and Career Awards.

One of the Nation's Strongest Multidisciplinary Groups of Collaborating Scientists
ICDB members represent an unusually broad spectrum of interests from embryology to structural biology and neurobiology. As a consequence, the Institute provides a unique and successful platform for multidisciplinary research. Different approaches to formulating and investigating research problems cross-fertilize one another, facilitating novel applications of advanced, highly specialized techniques to shed new light on important biomedical questions. Corporate sponsors have access to these scientific teams as a resource where their research program approaches can be explored and new directions discussed, The Institute has created two interdisciplinary laboratories to maximize collaborations among scientists:

Laboratory for Molecular Neurobiology. This laboratory, whose members include biochemists, cell biologists and neurobiologists seek to elucidate the molecular basis of neural function. Its success in understanding nerve dysfunction and degeneration will provide a new basis for developing drugs to treat neurological disorders.

Laboratory for Developmental Genetics. Its primary focus is on cell growth and differentiation. With unusually broad representation from the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Neurobiology, and Pharmacological Sciences, this laboratory constitutes one of the nation's strongest collaborating group of scientists in this critical area.

Pioneering Discoveries Lead To Practical Approaches to Answering Questions
Since its inception ten years ago, Institute members have made pioneering discoveries in diverse areas of scientific research including:

Developing a biologic system to detect protein:protein interactions that is used in drug discovery by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide and in basic and applied research in universities.

Discovering the mechanism of platelet aggregation in certain pathologic states. The monoclonal antibody developed to prevent this platelet aggregation had sales of $50 million worldwide in 1997.

Gaining an understanding of reproductive biology processes by being the first to describe the structure and sperm binding properties of receptors on the surface of sea urchin and frog eggs. This knowledge may lead to new methods of birth control.

Contributing to the understanding of angiogenesis, a process important to tumor growth, by using the chick embryo to study the role of proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors.

Discovery of an enzyme that mediates neuronal death. Inhibition of this enzyme leads to increased survival of injured neurons and could provide a new therapeutic approach to treating neurological diseases.

Pioneering work on the structure and function of topoisomerase, an enzyme involved in unwinding DNA, an essential step in DNA replication. Understanding the causes of mutagenesis can illuminate the causation of inherited disease and lead to new treatment approaches using gene therapy.

Research support for ICDB members has grown by over 43% in the last five years with industry sponsored research growing by 66% in the same time.

THE INSTITUTE AND THE UNIVERSITY

According to a quantitative national study published in 1997 by Johns Hopkins University Press, SUNY Stony Brook ranks second in the nation among public universities in research productivity per faculty member, with only UC Berkeley in front and Stony Brook tied with UC Santa Barbara. Research at this 40-year-old university has grown more than ten-fold in the last 25 years, exceeding $100 million in 1997. The life and biomedical sciences, which account for almost half of all research activity on the campus, have grown by 30% in the last 5 years.

Technology developed at Stony Brook was the basis for the first FDA-approved drug by the nation's largest public university system. The campus' aggressive technology transfer program, which ranks in the top twenty nationally, manages more than 450 invention disclosures, and over 200 corporate licenses.

RESEARCH THEMES

The Institute's efforts are focused on four research themes where a diversity of approaches offers the greatest promise of major advances in knowledge and in the application of this new knowledge to benefit present and future generations.

Gene Regulation: Understanding the fundamental processes that regulate the expression of genes during cell differentiation and embryonic development can lead to new approaches to treat inherited diseases.

Molecular Neurobiology: Pioneering research in nerve transmission, ion channels and receptor function can lead to the design of new drugs acting on the central nervous system.

Cancer Biology: Discovering the regulation of molecular interactions in malignant cells suggests ways to control abnormal cell differentiation. New therapeutic approaches to 'turning off' or controlling unbridled cell growth will utilize information learned from scientists working to understand the processes and mechanisms of control of cell growth.

Cell Signaling and Communication: Studying the interactions of cells with other cells and extracellular molecules to improve understanding of their behavior in normal and disease states. Increasing the knowledge base relating to the question of how cells communicate with one another and other organs can lead to better ways of treating disease.