Salk Institute for Biological Studies facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Salk Institute for Biological Studies |
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Salk Institute for Biological Studies in July 2019
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| General information | |
| Type | Institutional |
| Town or city | San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Current tenants | Salk Institute |
| Named for | Jonas Salk |
| Completed | 1965 |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | Vierendeel trusses |
| Material | Poured concrete |
| Floor count | 4 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Louis I. Kahn |
| Structural engineer | August Komendant |
| Awards and prizes | American Institute of Architects Twenty-five Year Award |
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a special place in La Jolla, San Diego, California, U.S. It is a science research center. Jonas Salk, who created the polio vaccine, started this non-profit institute in 1960. Famous scientists like Jacob Bronowski and Francis Crick helped him plan it. Building the labs began in 1962.
The Salk Institute is known as one of the best places in the U.S. for research in biology and health. In 2004, a group called Times Higher Education Supplement said it was the top health research institute in the world. In 2009, ScienceWatch ranked it number one globally for studies about the brain and how people act.
As of 2020, about 850 scientists work in 60 research teams at the Salk Institute. They focus on three main areas: the tiny parts of living things (like molecular biology and genetics), the neurosciences (the brain), and plant biology. Their research helps us understand things like aging, cancer, diabetes, problems babies are born with, and brain diseases like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. They also study the neurobiology of American Sign Language.
The March of Dimes gave the first money to start the institute and still helps support it. Other groups, like the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, also provide funding. The institute even has its own program to support new, brave ideas in science.
Contents
History of the Salk Institute
Jonas Salk and architect Louis I. Kahn asked the city of San Diego for land in March 1960. The city agreed after people voted "yes" in June 1960. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, now called the March of Dimes, gave the first money. Building started in 1962, and the first scientists moved into a lab in 1963. More buildings were added in the 1990s.
At the entrance to the institute, there is a golden message on the floor. It says: "Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality." This message honors Jonas Salk.
Francis Crick, who helped discover the shape of DNA, was a lead researcher at the Salk Institute. He studied the brain and how we become aware of things. He worked there until he passed away in 2004.
Celebrating 50 Years
From April 22 to 27, 2010, the Salk Institute celebrated its 50th birthday. They showed beautiful glass sculptures by artist Dale Chihuly. Irwin M. Jacobs, who used to be the chairman of the institute's board, helped pay for the event.
Why the Institute Was Built
Jonas Salk started the institute in 1963 in La Jolla, San Diego. He wanted a place where new scientists could grow in their careers. He once said, "I thought how nice it would be if a place like this existed and I was invited to work there." Many people, especially the National Foundation, helped him build his dream. He wanted a research center to study living things "from cell to society."
In 1966, Salk talked about his big plan. He wanted the institute to be a place where science and human ideas could mix and grow together. Author Howard Taubman explained:
Dr. Salk wanted to develop and use new biology, called molecular and cellular biology. This science mixes physics, chemistry, and biology to understand how life works.
Scientists hoped to find out how cells make antibodies. This could lead to one vaccine that protects children from many common diseases. They also thought about fixing genetic mistakes that cause birth defects.
Dr. Salk hoped the institute would help us learn from nature and make people wiser. He believed science, human ideas, and art help each person use their full creativity. The architect, Louis Kahn, even put blackboards on the walls outside for discussions.
In 1980, The New York Times wrote about the institute. They said Dr. Salk was the founding director. His team studied how the body's defense system works against cancer. They also looked at diseases like multiple sclerosis, where the immune system attacks the body.
Salk said he hoped that creating the institute would be very important. He wanted it to be a great place for smart people to be creative.
Francis Crick, who helped discover the structure of DNA, was a top professor at the institute until he passed away in 2004.
A book called Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts was written in 1979. It was based on the science done at the Salk Institute.
Amazing Architecture
The Salk Institute was designed by Louis Kahn between 1959 and 1965. Salk wanted a beautiful campus to attract the best scientists. The original buildings were made a historical landmark in 1991. The entire 27-acre site was considered important enough for the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Many people say it is Kahn's most important work.
The campus was planned to have three parts: meeting areas, living spaces, and laboratories. Only the laboratory part was built. It has two long buildings with a water garden in the middle. These two lab buildings frame a long view of the Pacific Ocean. A thin fountain in the middle seems to stretch out to the horizon.
Building Design
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Jack MacAllister helped design the buildings. The institute has two matching wings with a water stream flowing towards the ocean. This stream is in the middle of a plaza made of travertine stone. The buildings were first made with different colored concrete mixes. In the basement, there are walls with different colored water. Kahn was trying out different mixtures.
The buildings are designed to help scientists work together. There are no walls separating the labs on any floor. Lights on the roof can slide along rails. This shows the open and teamwork-focused way of doing science at Salk.
After two years of planning, Kahn and the Salk Institute decided to change the design. They went from four narrow lab buildings to two wider ones. They also added more floors to each building. August Komendant quickly redesigned the structure. He also taught the construction workers how to make the concrete look very smooth and refined.
In 1992, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) gave this building a special award. It is called the Twenty-five Year Award, given to only one building each year.
Inside the labs, the pipes and vents are supported by concrete Vierendeel trusses. These are like strong, ladder-shaped beams. People were worried these trusses might not hold up in an earthquake. But Komendant designed them so well that they were twice as strong as steel frames.
At first, Kahn wanted a garden in the middle of the two buildings. But he wasn't sure what it should look like. He saw art by Luis Barragan and asked him for ideas. Barragan told Kahn not to add any plants or dirt. Instead, he said to make it a plaza with only a water feature. This central space is now seen as the most amazing part of the design.
Courtyard Trees
In the courtyard, there is a grove of small Valencia orange trees. These trees replaced earlier orange and kumquat trees, and then lime trees. The lime trees were removed because they turned yellow in the shade. Valencia orange trees stay greener in the shade by making more chlorophyll. The old trees were used as mulch to help the ground.
Open Environment for Discovery
The Salk Institute has many open spaces. This shows that it is a place for new ideas and discoveries. The design mixes balanced and active spaces. This invites scientists to study in buildings made for research. Even though it looks modern, it is a quiet place for individual and team study. It is like old monasteries, which were places for religious discovery. These may have inspired Kahn's design. The Salk Institute represents how Western civilization seeks truth through science.
In 2014, the Getty Conservation Institute worked with the Salk Institute. They helped protect the concrete and teak buildings. These buildings are near the ocean, so they need special care from the harsh sea environment.
Labs and Library
Most of the labs and study areas are named after people who gave money to the institute. For example, there's the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology. A library with magazines, books, and computers is on the third floor of the North building. The Conrad T. Prebys auditorium and the Trustees' Room are in the basement of the east buildings.
Special Concrete
The concrete used for the buildings was made with volcanic ash. This was based on old Roman concrete methods. Because of this, the concrete has a warm, pinkish glow. This special concrete was only vibrated when needed for strength. This left a slightly rough texture on the walls. The basement also has a special area for genetic research.
Each lab building has five study towers. Each tower has four offices, except for those near the entrance, which have two. A slanted wall lets each of the 36 scientists have a view of the Pacific Ocean. Every study room has sliding and fixed glass panels in teak wood frames. The original plan also included living spaces and a conference building, but they were never built.
Building Structure
Kahn wanted to separate the "served" spaces (labs) from the "servant" spaces (mechanical areas). Because a lot of space was needed for pipes and ducts, Kahn created a separate service floor above each lab. This makes it easy to change labs later without bothering other areas. He also designed each lab floor to have no support columns inside. This makes it easier to arrange the labs.
August Komendant designed the Vierendeel trusses that make this possible. These strong concrete trusses are about 62 feet long. They stretch across the whole width of each floor. They go from the bottom to the top of each service floor. Steel cables inside the concrete support them, like cables on a suspension bridge. Their rectangular openings, which are 6 feet high in the middle, let maintenance workers move easily through the pipes and ducts. The trusses put weight straight down on their support columns. They are connected in a way that allows small movements during earthquakes.
What Scientists Do at Salk
The institute has many research units. Each unit has several science groups, led by a faculty member. Some of these units are:
- Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory
- Regulatory Biology Laboratory
- Structural Biology Laboratory
- Gene Expression Laboratory
- Laboratory of Genetics
- Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory
- Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory
- Systems Neurobiology Laboratories
- Computational Neurobiology Laboratory
- Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology
- Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory
- Chemical Biology and Proteomics Laboratory
- Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis Laboratory
- The Renato Dulbecco Laboratories for Cancer Research
Rusty Gage led the institute from 2019 to 2023. Gerald Joyce became the new president in February 2023. There are 53 faculty members. Many of them are members of important groups like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
The Salk Institute is known as one of the world's top places for biology research. This is especially true for studies about the brain and plants.
In 2009, Time magazine said that Joseph R. Ecker's work on mapping the human epigenome was the second biggest science achievement of the year.
In 2008, the California state government said it would give $270 million to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, which includes the Salk Institute, got $43 million from this money.
The institute also trains young scientists who are just starting their careers.
Important Projects
The Salk Institute has a project called the Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI). This project aims to help farm plants store more carbon from the air. It has two parts:
- CRoPS (CO2 Removal on a Planetary Scale): This aims to create "Salk Ideal Plants."
- CPR (Coastal Plant Restoration)
The "Salk Ideal Plants" are plants that are changed using genetics. The goal is to make plants with bigger, deeper roots and more suberin, which helps store carbon.
Training Programs
The Salk Institute does not give out degrees. However, it has a graduate program with the nearby UC San Diego. All Salk Institute professors also teach at UC San Diego. Students can earn a PhD or an MD/PhD degree.
Well-Known Scientists
Many famous scientists have worked at the Salk Institute:
- Joanne Chory: A well-known plant scientist.
- Ursula Bellugi: Started the study of how the brain works with American Sign Language.
- Joseph R. Ecker: An expert in plant genetics and epigenetics.
- Terrence Sejnowski: A famous computational neuroscientist.
- Ronald M. Evans: Won the Lasker Award for his work in molecular biology.
- Fred H. Gage: A highly respected neuroscientist.
- Tony Hunter: Discovered how proteins are changed by tyrosine phosphorylation.
- Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte: A leading developmental biologist.
- Katherine Jones: An expert in proteomics who found proteins needed for HIV gene expression.
- Charles F. Stevens: A neuroscientist known for studying the brain's structure.
- Reuben Shaw: A cancer researcher and director of Salk's Cancer Center.
Nobel Prize Winners
As of 2024, one Nobel Prize winner is on the Salk faculty: Elizabeth Blackburn. Four other Nobel winners who worked at Salk have passed away: Francis Crick, Robert W. Holley, Renato Dulbecco, and Sydney Brenner. Five more scientists who trained at Salk have also won the Nobel Prize.
Past Scientists
- Stephen Heinemann (1939–2014): An early neuroscientist.
- Francis Crick (deceased): Nobel winner for the DNA double helix.
- Leslie Orgel (deceased): A former Senior Fellow and Research Professor.
- Marguerite Vogt (deceased): A virologist.
- Leo Szilard (deceased): A nuclear physicist who invented a cancer treatment.
- Renato Dulbecco (deceased): Nobel winner for viral transformation of cells.
- Melvin Cohn (deceased): A co-founder and pioneer in gene regulation.
- Elizabeth Blackburn (former president of Salk Institute): Nobel winner for work on telomeres.
- Sydney Brenner (deceased): Nobel winner for work with Caenorhabditis elegans.
- Roger Guillemin: A co-founder and Nobel winner for studying neurohormones.
- Inder Verma: A cancer biologist and editor of the PNAS journal.
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See also
- Broad Institute
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Laboratory Life: A book about science based on work at Salk.
- San Diego Historical Landmarks in La Jolla, California
- University of California, San Diego
- Whitehead Institute
