History Timeline

Bert Lester (Blumenthal) Vallee was born in Germany on June 1. He grew up in Luxembourg.

Natalie (Kuggie) Kugris was born in Girardville, PA

With a BSC from the University of Bern, Bert Vallee moved to the US as the first and only fellow of the International Student Service of the League of Nations.

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Kuggie moved to Boston to attend Boston University. She earned her BS and EdM in Biology from Boston University while working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Science Department at BU and also as a research consultant at the New Hampshire Mental Hygiene Clinic. Bert and Kuggie met at about this time.

Bert earned his MD from NYU College of Medicine and began work at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he became interested in the metabolism of iron and other metals such as zinc and copper. During World War II, he was assigned to the joint HMS-MIT blood-preservation project directed by the protein chemists Edwin Cohn and John Edsall. This experience shaped his future career in biochemistry and biophysics.

Bert was awarded a National Research Council Fellowship to study emission arc spectroscopy in the world-famous spectroscopy laboratory affiliated with the physics, chemistry and biology departments of MIT.

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Kuggie earned her EdD from Boston University and subsequently became Professor of Biology at Lesley College where she remained for 27 years.

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Bert established the Biophysics Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. This laboratory became the locus of Bert’s scientific prowess.

Bert named Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

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Bert discovered the unique protein metallothionein, a low-molecular weight cysteine-rich protein. The protein binds zinc atoms very tightly and has been implicated in the homeostasis of zinc metabolism. It also binds many other metals tightly: the redox properties of copper, when bound to metallothionein, may be of significance in neurodegenerative diseases. Alcohol dehydrogenase, another zinc-containing enzyme, was of interest to Bert Vallee because of its role in alcohol metabolism and the general problem of alcohol addiction.

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Bert became the Paul C Cabot Professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School.

Harvard and Monsanto embarked on a radical departure from conventional academic research by entering into a joint venture catalyzed by Bert and Monsanto Vice-President, Monte Throdahl. This was an academic-industrial enterprise on a large scale, perhaps the first of its kind in terms of funding and duration. The research was directed toward isolating chemicals that led to new blood vessels in tumors. Bert’s lab characterized one of these chemicals, angiogenin, which proved to be a ribonuclease analog.

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Bert established the Endowment for Research in Human Biology at Harvard with income from the Bronfman Foundation to fund research in alcohol metabolism.

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Kuggie became Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at Lesley College and subsequently was appointed Lecturer on Biology in the Center for Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences and Medicine at Harvard University.

Hans Jornvall (Karolinska Institutet) brought his whole lab to visit Bert’s lab.

Bert and Kuggie established The Bert L & N Kuggie Vallee Foundation Inc to promote a collegial community of international scientists, to enhance scientific collaboration and communication, and to advance medical education and biomedical research. This was initially achieved by sponsoring short-term Vallee Visiting Professorships (VVPs) at institutions with which Bert Vallee had developed close collaborations and biennial meetings of this group of biomedical scientists.

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In the spring, Clarence ‘Bud’ Ryan, a leader in the field of innate immune response in plants at Washington State University, had, in his words, “the tremendous honor and privilege to be invited as the first Bert and Natalie Vallee Visiting Professor.” Bert’s lab used biochemical approaches to study human diseases and presented “an unusual opportunity to examine the broader aspects of biochemistry and biology that span both plant and animal kingdoms.”

“Your concept to bring visiting professors to Harvard for a period of one month is extraordinarily creative and unique in science. It provides opportunities for all involved to enhance interdisciplinary science. By inviting scientists to your lab who have distinguished themselves in a field, an environment is generated that enhances creativity and novelty. Scientific discovery depends upon the integration and critical evaluation of ideas and data. The visiting professorship provides such an environment. It is a concept that goes far beyond the traditional visiting speaker, who is in and out in a day. It expands this interaction to several weeks, during which ideas can be nurtured and developed into scientific advancement." (Bud Ryan, VVP 1997)

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A few weeks later, Allen Hill, a pioneer in the field of protein electrochemistry at the University of Oxford, arrived in Bert’s lab for his Vallee Visiting Professorship (VVP).

“Coming back to the Harvard Medical School as a Vallee Visiting Professor was a strange experience for me in the sense that, since I had been on sabbatical with Bert Vallee in 1970-71, I had visited the Laboratory at least every year. The primary difference between this and other visits was that with the freedom allowed, I had time to converse intensely with both the experienced and not-so-experienced colleagues at Harvard Medical School.”  (Allen Hill, VVP 1997)

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And a third VVP, Jerrold Meinwald, came to Bert's lab from Cornell in October.

“[Among other things, I used the freedom allowed me] to write first drafts of three chapters for a book; complete or nearly complete four research manuscripts; write and submit a renewal for the NIH grant which supports all my insect related research, and attend several excellent Chemistry Department lectures in Cambridge.”  (Jerrold Meinwald, VVP 1997)

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The Vallee Foundation’s first Symposium, held in Boston in May, brought together 18 scientists, both VVPs and others, to celebrate "Forty Years of Metallothionein".

Edmond H Fischer (University of Washington) had a “most rewarding experience” in Bert’s lab where the three main themes under investigation (metallothionein and Zn2+ metabolism; angiogenin and angiogenin and angiogenesis; and Diadzin’s involvement in alcohol addiction) were outside his own field of investigation (signal transduction and cellular regulation) and thus challenging and exciting.

“From a professional point of view, I feel that I received far more than I could give, which is always the case on such occasions: the visit was most rewarding. Aside from my daily talks with Bert (I could walk into his office at any time, unannounced, which I did unabashedly several times a day), I had good opportunities to speak at some length with all the group leaders within the Center. In fact, these daily interactions in front of a blackboard where we discussed the work that was going on remain among my most pleasant recollections.”  (Edmond Fischer, VVP 1998) 

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Lars Terenius (Karolinska Institutet) was another VVP who spent a month in Bert’s lab at HMS.  

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From now on, not all VVPs came to Bert’s Lab. The Vallee Foundation began to send VVPs further afield: Earl Davie, a biochemist studying blood proteins involved in coagulation and fibrinolysis at the University of Washington, travelled to Hans Jornvall’s lab at the Karolinska Institutet.

“Uninterrupted time was, in many ways, the single most important aspect of my stay at the Karolinska. [Free from the usual distractions of telephone calls, administrative duties, and teaching obligations, I was able to spend] nearly three hours every morning thinking and planning both new and old projects underway in our laboratory, which also made it possible to clarify new approaches for our future research. It was a very beneficial and exciting experience in my scientific career.” (Earl Davie, VVP 1999)

Stephen Sligar, Lycan Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, was hosted by Allen Hill (VVP 1997) at Queen's College, Oxford, in May.

"Spending an extended time at one location offers an opportunity to integrate formal scientific interactions, seminars and group discussions with the social networking that is often the most productive in defining new multi-disciplinary directions and initiatives.  ...  Such interactions - multiple meetings with professors, post-doctoral associates and students - which could then be interspersed with visits to the library or laboratory, allowed an in-depth exploration of new research agendas and ideas."  (Stephen Sligar, VVP 1999)

Klaus Rajewsky, approaching mandatory retirement from the University of Cologne, came to Bert’s lab to explore research opportunities at Harvard Medical School.

“In the autumn of 1999, my wife and I spent six wonderful weeks in Boston, living in a Vallee-owned apartment … we loved the place, the many friends we made, the electric atmosphere of the medical campus and the general Boston/Cambridge environment. In 2001, we moved to Boston and I became a professor in the HMS Department of Pathology and PI at the Center for Blood Research. The generosity and hospitality of the Vallee Foundation were key to my transatlantic move and to many new bonds and friendships.” (Klaus Rajewsky, VVP 1999)

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Wade Harper (Harvard Medical School) spent a month in the lab of Dame Louise Johnson at Oxford.

“How very rare it is for scientists to be able to spend several weeks fully away from their ongoing activities to simply learn something new and interact extensively with colleagues of orthogonal interests. The VVP provides just such an opportunity. I learned the basics of molecular modeling, something that I would not have been able to do without the time and freedom afforded by the VVP.”

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Dame Louise Johnson, a leading molecular biologist and protein crystallographer at the University of Oxford, and Cheng-Wen Wu, who was doing pioneering work on the four-step mechanism of gene transcription at the National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan, both became Vallee Visiting Professors in Bert's lab at Harvard Medical School. Moshe Yaniv, a leader in the field of DNA tumor viruses like Polyoma, SV40 and Papilloma at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, spent his Vallee Visiting Professorship in Peter Howley's lab at Harvard Medical School.

Fourteen Vallee Visiting Professors and members of Bert Vallee's lab met in Annecy in the spring of 2002 at the second Vallee Meeting to report on their research.

Kuggie retired from Harvard University.

Long-standing collaborations were furthered and expanded when Gerard Canters (Leiden University) spent his VVP sabbatical in Allen Hill’s lab at Oxford.

“The excellent scientific reputation of the host institute; complete freedom of any bureaucratic obligations and the ability to focus on science and mutual contacts; the length of the stay. Longer than three months would have caused problems in my own institution; shorter than a month would have diminished the usefulness of my stay abroad disproportionately...” (Gerard Canters, VVP 2003)

Malcolm Green (University of Oxford) was provided with a much-needed opportunity to think about his future research program during his month-long VVP sabbatical in Jeremy Knowles’ lab in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University.  

With vast experience in electrochemistry, both in its analytical use and in its application to organometallic chemistry, Alan Bond (Monash University) wanted to strengthen his interest in its application to biochemical problems so chose to spend his VVP sabbatical at the University of Oxford to work primarily with Fraser Armstrong.

“A wonderful aspect of the Vallee Foundation has been the facilitation of collaboration with experts from different fields. This has enabled stiff problems to be tackled at an in-depth level.”  (Alan Bond, VVP 2004)

In addition to providing an opportunity for formal and informal science reports from several VVPs, the 2004 meeting, held in Boston, was devoted to two themes: “Molecular Pathology” and “Clinical Nanochemistry and Molography: A Tribute to Allen Hill”.

Hans Jörnvall (Karolinska Institutet), who had known and collaborated with Bert since the 1970s, came back to Bert’s lab for his VVP sabbatical.

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Douglas Rees (California Institute of Technology) was welcomed to the University of Oxford on two separate visits of two weeks each time where he was hosted by Dame Louise Johnson and Fraser Armstrong.

“I was concerned there might be a connection between the Vallee Foundation and Bert Vallee, and if so, I was certain I was invited in error. My apprehension was based on having performed my thesis research on carboxypeptidase A crystallography with William Lipscomb and it was fair to say that the relationship between these two former collaborators was not warm and fuzzy. Given my background, I couldn’t believe I would be given the opportunity to participate in the VVP program. To my pleasant surprise, Bert did know about my past, but I was still considered acceptable.   There are many mechanisms for [getting scientists together], but the VVP program is extraordinarily effective and I am grateful to the Vallee Foundation for providing me with this opportunity.”  (Douglas Rees, VVP 2005)

The 2006 Vallee Summer Symposium convened 15 VVPs to Endicott House in Dedham to talk about their work.  Topics included peptide signals for the innate immune response in plants (Clarence Ryan, Washington State University, VVP 1997), structural studies on cell regulatory proteins (Louise Johnson, University of Oxford, VVP 2001), and gene and pathway discovery in the ubiquitin-proteasome system (Wade Harper, Harvard Medical School, VVP  2000) among many others.

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Lewis Cantley, who was then at Harvard Medical School, took the closest he had come to a sabbatical experience in Louise Johnson's lab at the University of Oxford.

“Being over-committed throughout my career, finding even a single month to escape to a new academic environment was a rare and rewarding experience. Having originally trained as an enzymologist, but finding myself increasingly mired in the complexity of cancer biology, it was great fun to get back to my roots and bounce ideas about mechanisms of action of protein kinases and metabolic enzymes off my hosts and their colleagues at Oxford.” (Lewis Cantley, VVP 2006)

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Suzanne Cory (The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute) was hosted by Moshe Yaniv at the Institut Pasteur.

“I have had many fruitful scientific discussions with scientists at the Pasteur and elsewhere in Paris … and, most recently, the Vallee Foundation meeting in Boston, at which I met outstanding scientists from many different fields. As a consequence, I will be going back to Melbourne full of new ideas and drive, which will greatly benefit my laboratory.”  (Suzanne Cory, VVP 2006)

Bert and Kuggie Vallee loved Montana.  Both were keen horse riders and relished the outdoors.  The wide-open spaces surrounding the 320 Guest Ranch in Big Sky provided a breathtaking contrast to the normal laboratory-based work of the Vallee Visiting Professors.  A two-day 2007 Summer Symposium provided mornings in the mountains, and afternoons devoted to two colloquia: Science and Society and Metals in Plants and Animals.

Jesper Haeggström (Karolinska Institutet) spent his VVP sabbatical in the lab of Charles Serhan lab at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

“One facet of my visit that was particularly stimulating was all the informal meetings and discussions with distinguished colleagues both inside and outside my own immediate fields of interest. I remember spending one morning in K Frank Austen’s laboratory, sharing thoughts on intracellular lipid receptors with Peter Weller, and learning the latest new developments regarding in vivo imaging from Ulrich von Andrian. … The central point of my visit was of course Bert Vallee himself. His hospitality and generosity was overwhelming. In his office and in his home, even late at night, we shared thoughts and memories about trifles and important issues, of general as well as of private interest. Bert was a passionate positivist and firmly believed that science is the answer to most, if not all, questions of mankind, which of course was challenging for a skeptical Swede like me. I think of these encounters with Bert with great warmth and realize they taught me that a man’s mind and spirit can stay young and vigorous far beyond the detriments of physical aging.” (Jesper Haeggström, VVP 2008)

Though he had met Bert Vallee in the 1970s, Sir Alan Roy Fersht (University of Cambridge) hadn’t collaborated with him before and was surprised to be invited to become a VVP.  He spent a fruitful month working next to Bert in Peter Cowley’s lab.

The 2009 Summer Symposium, again held in Dedham, provided an opportunity for 16 VVPs and other scholars and scientists to talk about their work as well as explore The Future for Young Scientists in Europe and the USA and Bringing Discoveries to Market.

Peter Howley (Harvard Medical School) spent two weeks in Oxford thanks to Dame Louise Johnson and Allen Hill and two weeks hosted by Moshe Yaniv at the Institut Pasteur.

“It turned out that Louise Johnson and I have a common interest in a cellular bromodomain protein called Brd4 and were unaware of this major interface between our research interests before the visit to Oxford. Time was too short.”

John Collier’s (Harvard Medical School) productive month in the lab of Earl Davie at the University of Washington provided an opportunity for extended discussions on topics of mutual interest.

“It is rare in one’s career that there is the opportunity to hold extended discussions with colleagues without the inevitable interruptions and distractions in one’s daily life at home base – and this goal of the VVP program was well fulfilled during my visit.”

In May, 2010, Torsten Wiesel came back to Harvard to renew contact with the Department of Neurobiology, where he had previously been a member for twenty years.

“My experience as a Vallee Visiting Professor was intellectually rich and wonderful. I met with nearly the entire faculty of the department individually, which turned out to be a very enriching and enjoyable experience. The faculty members described their research programs, followed by intense and detailed discussions about various aspects of their work.”

Bert Vallee had planned that the 2010 Summer Meeting would take place in Iceland, but the location was quickly moved to Boston when it became clear that his health was deteriorating. In the end, he died just three months beforehand. He would have enjoyed the stimulating papers and lively discussion that revolved around the themes of the symposium: Protein Structure and Function, Molecular Medicine, Remembering Bert L Vallee, Preparing for the Next Generation of Scientists.

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 Bert Lester Vallee died on May 7.  S James Adelstein (Paul C Cabot Distinguished Professor of Medical Biophysics, Harvard Medical School) became President of the Vallee Foundation.

Natalie Kugris (Kuggie) Vallee died on November 23.

Stephen Benkovic (Penn State) collaborated with colleagues in the Bensimon Lab at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, to understand the workings of molecular machines and in particular to work with the T4 phage replisome.

“The science fostered by my visit will continue through strengthened collaborations and I am confident will lead to novel, significant discoveries that will impact significantly our understanding of enzyme driven biochemical processes.”  (Stephen Benkovic, VVP 2012)

Though based at the Nasmyth Lab at Oxford over the summer, Patrick Cramer (LMU, Munich) focused on discussing the latest results from his lab with colleagues in Oxford, Cambridge and London. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker (Human Frontier Science Program Organization) spent his VVP sabbatical in the the Seed and Szostak labs at MGH). Gunnar von Heijne’s (Stockholm University) fruitful visit to the lab of Rod MacKinnon at the Rockefeller University focused on their mutual interest in membrane proteins. Also appointed VVP: Martin Lohse (University of Wurzburg)

The 2012 Summer Symposium was held in Iceland on the theme of Molecular Machines.

The first Vallee Lindau Fellows were appointed to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting:

Miri Krupkin (Weizmann Institute of Sciences)

Fernanda Duarte (Uppsala University)

Hui-Chung Tai (Korea Institute for Advanced Study)

Zhaoyan Zhu (CalTech)

The first Young Investigator Awardees were appointed.
Kirsty Spalding (Karolinska Institutet): Adipose tissue mass regulation in lean and obese individuals.
David Tobin (Duke University): Decoding the Host Immune Response to Mycobacterial Infection.
Feng Zhang (MIT, Broad Institute): In vivo Genome Engineering Technologies for Probing Brain Function and Disease.

Naama Barkai (Weizmann Institute of Science) had three hosts in Boston during the summer: Andrew Murray at Harvard’s Center for Systems Biology in Cambridge, Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute, and Marc Kirschner in System Biology at HMS.

“I didn’t make specific plans connected to any specific project in the lab. My goal was to discuss and interact with people as much as possible. I wanted to absorb and have some time to think things through outside the usual day-to-day work and commitments." (Naama Barkai, VVP 2013)

Sir Philip Cohen (University of Dundee) walked all over Boston and Cambridge during his VVP sabbatical, the first sabbatical leave of his career. He was hosted by Wade Harper and Nathanael Gray at HMS.

“During my four weeks in Boston I had interesting, wide-ranging and productive discussions of about an hour’s duration with 43 members of the Faculty of Harvard Medical School , MIT and MGH. Several new scientific collaborations were forged with immunologists at Harvard, and reagents generated in my laboratory have already been shipped to several other members of the Harvard Faculty to test hypotheses that emerged from our discussions.”  (Sir Philip Cohen, VVP 2013)

Arnold Levine (Institute for Advanced Study) went to the Salk Institute where he was hosted by Inder Verma.

“The Salk Institute was a terrific place to have a sabbatical for four weeks. It has great breadth in science, it is an active and interesting environment, is in a beautiful setting and has a great history. … This excellent concept of providing the resources to spend a month at another Institution is scientifically invigorating, renews friendships and creates a path for new learning.”  (Arnold Levine, VVP 2013)

Walter Gehring (University of Basel) spent four weeks at the Karolinska Institutet where he worked with Rudolf Rigler and Lars Terenius. Also appointed a VVP: Philip Sharp (MIT)

Four more Vallee Young Investigator Awards were given to: Sandeep Robert Datta, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, is working on the development and function of neural circuits. Danelle Devenport, PhD, Princeton University, is a cellular and developmental biologist who studies how cells communicate with one another to control collective behaviors over extremely long-distances. Jérôme Gros, PhD, Pasteur Institute, is a developmental biologist trying to understand how cells, the building blocks of tissue, assemble in real time, as morphogenesis, the process by which an organism takes shape, is taking place. Christopher Mason, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College, is examining tumor evolution with single-cell technologies, clonality delineation algorithms, and integrative genomics techniques to detail the dynamic functional heterogeneity of Acute Myeloid Leukemia hematopoietic stem cells during chemotherapy.

The first Bert and Natalie Vallee Award in Biomedical Science was awarded to Michael Gottesman (National Cancer Institute) at the annual meeting of the ASBMB

Ron Vale (University of California, San Francisco) spent a month at the Curie Institute in Paris, hosted by Genevieve Almouzni.

"I chose the Curie Institut in Paris because of their excellence in the field of cell biology and because I will be joining their scientific advisory board starting in November 2014. ... With regard to informal discussions, I spent a great deal of time talking to faculty, postdocs and students one-on-one. I spoke with essentially all of the junior faculty in the basic sciences, each for an hour or more. I also organized a dinner with ten junior faculty with the purpose of having an extensive and informal conversation on the challenges of setting up a laboratory and tenure process." (Ron Vale, VVP 2014)

David Holowka and Barbara Baird (Cornell University) divided their month between the Maxfield Lab at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Wu Lab at the National University of Singapore).

"To gain basic knowledge and learn about advanced techniques we chose to travel to the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore." (David Holowka and Barbara Baird, VVPs 2014)

Kai Simons (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics) got a glimpse of what is going on in his area of research – cell membranes, membrane trafficking and the role of lipids in membrane function – by dividing his time between the Mellman lab at Genentech, the Walter Lab at UCSF, and the Kirchhausen lab at HMS.

 "Altogether, my Vallee Visiting Professorship was an exciting experience and gave me a lot of impulses for my research and for future collaborations. After having been in the shadows, lipids are moving center stage again. At least this is my optimistic interpretation of my encounters, and discussions during my stay." (Kai Simons, VVP 2014

Also appointed VVPs: Christopher Dobson (University of Cambridge) and Thomas Shenk (Princeton University)

The 2014 Summer Symposium was held in Boston on the topic of Protein Homeostasis, Metabolism, and Cancer.

The second group of Vallee Lindau Fellows attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting:

• Renata Gomes (Kings College London)
• Alice Matimba (University of Zimbabwe)
• Maria Molina (Freie Universitat, Berlin)
• Johanna Roostalu (Cancer Research UK)

Six Vallee Lindau Fellows attended the 65^th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting this year: Joanne Fothergill (University of Liverpool) Katie Harron PhD (University College London) Agnieska Krzyzoslak PhD (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge) Sarah Rollauer PhD (NIH & MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge) Melda Tozluoglu PhD (University College London), and Melissa Ward PhD (University of Edinburgh).

Peter M Howley, PhD, Shattuck Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, was elected President of the Vallee Foundation to replace S James Adelstein, Paul C Cabot Distinguished Professor of Medical Biophysics at Harvard Medical School, who retains the title of Past President.

David Eisenberg, Paul Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UCLA and an HHMI Investigator, is the second winner of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s Bert and Natalie Vallee Award in Biomedical Science.

The third round of Vallee Young Investigators was appointed: Martin Jinek (University of Zurich): Enhancing the capabilities of CRISPR-Cas9 RNA-guided genome editing. Fabiana Perocchi, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich): Reconstruction of mitochondrial calcium signaling checkpoints. Rickard Sandberg (Karolinska Institutet): The nature of allelic gene expression in vivo.

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Bonnie Bassler (Princeton University) spent her VVP sabbatical in Arturo Zychlinsky’s lab at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin):

“I’m home from my Vallee month. It was magical! Please tell the committee I say again thank you so much for choosing me. I now understand why the month-long time frame is such a spectacular idea. I had a completely immersive experience. As described in the Vallee information packet, I routinely go on science visits lasting 2-3 days. They are fascinating but jam-packed and I am home before I know it. The Vallee timing enabled me to get out of my routine. I had the luxury of time to think, to ponder, to reflect, to read, and to discuss science deeply. Having the freedom of unrestricted time (no meetings and no disturbances), allowed me to consider what science I want to do, redefine my research goals and priorities, and think through the parts of my job and which committees enable me to make valuable contributions. I adored being in someone else’s lab. What was different is that the research problems the group was struggling with were not my problems to solve. Thus, the science was 100% enjoyable to me because I had no stress associated with having to fix technical or intellectual stumbling blocks, I did not need to make sure the graduate students and postdocs were succeeding, I did not have to wonder how we would ever get a publication from the data presented at lab meetings, etc. This “getting off my treadmill” aspect of the fellowship might have been the single most valuable feature of the fellowship. Well, bottom line: it was one of the most fantastic trips of my life.”  (Bonnie Bassler, VVP 2015)

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Ivan Dikic (Goethe University Medical School, Frankfurt) was hosted for two two-week sessions by Wade Harper in the HMS Department of Molecular Cell Biology.

“All of these meetings were characterized by an extremely friendly and open atmosphere giving room for the discussion of current challenges and technological advances as well as for the exchange of novel data and original ideas. This was indeed very inspiring and in many ways affected my thinking and the conception of new projects. Also, several contacts were initiated that surely will lead to future collaborations. This high degree of intensive intellectual exchange was only possible in this particular setting, and all discussions went far beyond what is usually achieved on scientific meetings or in departmental seminars.”  (Ivan Dikic, VVP 2016)

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Nicholas Tonks (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to Tiganis lab Monash University).

“When I was first informed that I had been selected as a Vallee Visiting Professor I was both honored and excited, but also concerned that it would be difficult to find the time to use this opportunity effectively. Now that I have completed the visit I can say without reservation that it was a wonderful experience. Melbourne is an outstanding place for biomedical research and it was beneficial to have an extended period of time to experience that environment in some depth. Furthermore, the potential collaborations that have arisen would never have occurred without this visit.” (Nicholas Tonks, VVP 2016)

The 2015 Summer Meeting focused on the work being done by a handful of Vallee Young Investigators: David Tobin (Duke University Medical Center); Feng Zhang (McGovern Institute, Broad Institute, MIT); Danelle Devenport (Princeton University); Sandeep Robert Datta (Harvard Medical School); and Christopher Mason (Weill Cornell Medical College).  Recently appointed VVP Susan Lindquist (Whitehead Institute, MIT, HHMI) gave the keynote lecture.

Five internationally recognized leaders in biomedical research were named the 2016 Vallee Visiting Professors. Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD, (Director, Department of Regulation in Infection Biology, Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology); David Eisenberg, DPhil, (Paul D Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Los Angeles; HHMI Investigator): Elaine Fuchs, PhD, (Rebecca Lancefield Professor in Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University; HHMI Investigator);  Carol Robinson, PhD, DBE, FRS, (Doctor Lee's Professor of Chemistry, Royal Society Research Professor, The University of Oxford); and Carla Shatz, PhD,  (Sapp Family Provostial Professor of Biology and Neurobiology and the David Starr Jordan Director of Bio-X, Stanford University).

The 2016 Summer Symposium is a multi-disciplinary meeting taking place in Rapallo, Italy. Showcasing work by selected Vallee Visiting Professors and Young Investigators, the meeting is divided into five main sessions: Young Investigator Talks; Cellular Homeostasis Mechanisms; Crossing Membranes; Responding to the Environment; and Cancer Biology.

Nine senior scientists took their Vallee Visiting Professor sabbaticals this year:

Karen Vousden (Chief Scientist, Cancer Research, UK) spent a month at Weil Cornell Medicine’s Sandra and Edward Meyer Center, hosted by Lewis Cantley (VVP 2006), its director.

“The opportunity to spend time thinking and talking science with such an outstanding group of cancer researchers allowed me to explore new areas and opportunities, and focus on the direction of my own research, without the interruptions and distractions of my job as Institute Director in Glasgow.  I learnt about new methodologies, acquired new protocols and reagents and established new collaborations. I spent many hours talking to young scientists – postdocs and students – and hopefully may have offered them some helpful suggestions for some of their projects. … This visit will have a profound and positive impact on my research in the future, reflecting not only the discussion, knowledge and reagents acquired but also the establishment and strengthening of relationships with new and old friends and colleagues.”  (Karen Vousden, VVP 2016)  

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Christopher Dobson (John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology, University of Cambridge) was hosted by his former student, Fabrizio Chiti, at the University of Florence where they worked together to write a review article following up on their successful "Protein misfolding, functional amyloid, and human disease" article published in the Annual Reviews of Biochemistry in 2006.  

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David Eisenberg (Paul D Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Los Angeles; HHMI Investigator) spent several weeks at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, called the LMB by its occupants.

"The LMB is considered by many as the home of structural biology, with about a dozen Nobel prizes to its credit, and also a leading center of neurobiology.  Thus it was a perfect match to my current interest - the structural basis of neurodegeneration and related amyloid diseases."  (David Eisenberg, VVP 2016)

Elaine Fuchs (Rebecca Lancefield Professor in Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University: HHMI Investigator) went to the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona.

The experience "was exceptional and provided me with the wonderful opportunity to strengthen existing interactions with colleagues at the IRB in Barcelona and the CNIO in Madrid [and] to forge many new interactions and discussions with faculty, postdocs and students at these institutions." (Elaine Fuchs, VVP 2016)

Ari Helenius (Emeritus Professor, Institute of Biochemistry, ETH Zurich) chose to divide his VVP sabbatical between two research institutions.  He spent the first two weeks of April on the Mission Bay campus of the University of California San Francisco in the laboratory of Jonathan Weissman, an expert in the analysis of molecular mechanisms underlying folding and quality control, protein expression, and membrane biology.

Tyler Jacks (Director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT) spent his VVP sabbatical in Tel Aviv at the Weizmann Institute of Science last winter and said that the experience was “transformational,” both for him and for his family.   For her first sabbatical in 25 years,

Carol Robinson (Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford) spent September 2016 at the Rockefeller University, hosted by Barry Chait in the Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry and Gaseous Ion Chemistry.

“Without doubt this was one of the most stimulating months of my career, one in which I was free to think of my new directions without the distraction of the day-to-day management of the laboratory.  I was able to work on manuscripts and to formulate new research proposals.  As such I found this month to be completely stimulating and productive with many new collaborations established and novel ideas arising.  I am excited to return to my lab at Oxford to implement these new research directions.” (Dame Carol Robinson, VVP 2016)

Andreas Strasser (Alan W Harris Personal Chair in Experimental Cancer Biology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia) spent several months at Genentech in San Francisco this year, partly sponsored by his Vallee Visiting Professorship.

 "My Vallee Foundation-sponsored sabbatical at Genentech has been a truly amazing experience, scientifically, intellectually and personally.  I cannot thank enough the Vallee Foundation for making this possible for me.” (Andreas Strasser, VVP 2016)

Peter Walter (Distinguished Professor, University of California, San Francisco, HHMI Investigator) spent a month in Germany, where he spent the majority of his time at the ZMBH, Heidelberg, and the Max-Planck Institut fur Membranstruktur in Frankfurt.

"The special situation of having free time to roam, both literally and mentally, was refreshing and stimulating." (Peter Walter, VVP 2016)

Bonnie Bassler (Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University) gave a lively talk on the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication as the inaugural Kuggie Vallee Distinguished Lecture. The Lecture was given at Harvard Medical School in conjunction with a Female Leaders in Science workshop.

Five Vallee Visiting Professors were appointed: Kay Davies, DPhil, FMedSci, FRCP (hon), FRCPath, CBE, DBE, FRS (Dr Lee’s Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford); F Ulrich Hartl, MD, DMed (Director of the Department of Cellular Biochemisty, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich); Brenda Schulman, PhD (Joseph Simone Chair in Basic Research, St Jude Children's Research Hospital; Inder Verma, PhD (Irwin and Joan Jacobs Chair in Exemplary Life Science, Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences); Xiaowei Zhuang, PhD (David B Arnold Professor of Science, Director, Center for Advanced Imaging, Harvard University, HHMI Investigator.

Five early career scientists were appointed Vallee Scholars: Viviana Gradinaru, PhD, Assistant Professor, The California Institute of Technology; Shalev Itzkovitz, PhD, Senior Scientist, Weizmann Institute, Israel; Daniel Jarosz, PhD, Assistant Professor, Stanford University; Thomas Kehl-Fie, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Samantha Morris, PhD, Assistant Professor, Washington University.

Carla Shatz (Sapp Family Provostial Professor of Biology and Neurobiology and the David Starr Jordan Director of Stanford Bio-X) spent her VVP sabbatical at Columbia University’s newly formed Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute (ZMBBI).  

Before the VVP, I don’t think I understood the power or utility of sharing my own experiences – both in science and in life. I met with Mike Purdy, Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia, who wanted to know everything about Stanford Bio-X, which I direct, and about how Stanford has built so many cutting-edge and successful interdisciplinary institutes. I was taken unawares by the genuine interest of students and junior faculty in the course of my research training, decisions and discoveries, and my personal life story. The VVP did more than expand my scientific horizons. It deepened my understanding of myself, and what I can offer to others. For this experience I am profoundly thankful.

The 2017 Vallee Summer Meeting was devoted to the Vallee Scholars, the younger generation of basic biomedical researchers supported by the Bert L & N Kuggie Vallee Foundation.  Seven Vallee Scholars and one keynote speaker filled the day with fascinating science. Conversations on CRISPR and Zelda, the lights of Boston harbor, alleles and zebrafish continued aboard the 90-year old schooner, Roseway, that evening.  

Geraldine Seydoux (Huntington Sheldon Professor in Medical Discovery and Vice Dean for Basic Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and HHMI Investigator) returned to her alma mater, Princeton University to give the second Kuggie Vallee Distinguished Lecture on RNA granules. This was again paired with a Female Leaders in Science Workshop, designed to strengthen individual skills for success in academic biomedicine and to foster networking and mentoring among women faculty.  In her introduction, Dr Bonnie Bassler said of Dr Seydoux:

"She has, over and over, performed dogma-overturning research.  She, her lab, and her work have been recognized by many honors.  She is a fabulous teacher and has a long record of service to science.”

Elena Conti, PhD (Director of the Department of Structural Cell Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich) and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, PhD (Group Leader, HHMI-Janelia Research Campus) were appointed Vallee Visiting Professors.

The 2018 Vallee Foundation Summer Symposium was held in Dublin June 15-18, 2018.  The Symposium, entitled “Imaging in Cell Biology and Neuroscience,”  brought together an outstanding group of speakers including a number of Vallee Visiting Professors and Vallee Scholars as well as some scientists new to the Vallee Foundation, in the spirit of fostering collaboration among scientists worldwide.  The meeting featured three formal oral sessions as well as an afternoon poster session.

Five more Vallee Scholars are appointed: Tanmay Bharat, PhD (Group leader, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford); Mark T Harnett, PhD (Assistant Professor, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Eunyong Park, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley); Sichen (Susan) Shao, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School); and Josien Van Wolfswinkel, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University).

F Ulrich Hartl, (Director, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried) took his Vallee Visiting Professorship sabbatical at Stanford University in September/October, where he was hosted in the Department of Genetics by Dr Judith Frydman, a world leader in the field of chaperone-assisted protein folding and cellular protein quality control.

 “This has been an extremely rich and rewarding experience, both scientifically and socially. I am now looking forward to bringing to fruition some of the new ideas that were formed in the numerous discussions with colleagues and to begin working on collaborative projects.  If there is only one regret, it is that the time in California passed too quickly.”

Four new VVPs were appointed: Wolfgang Baumeister, PhD (Director & Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried and Honorary Professor, Technical University of Munich); Michel Goedert, MD, PhD (Program Leader, Division of Neurobiology, Medical Research Council Lab of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK); Susan Gottesman, PhD (Co-Chief, Laboratory of Molecular Biology; NIH Distinguished Investigator; and Head, Biochemical Genetics Section, National Cancer Institute); and Anthony A Hyman, PhD (Director & Group Leader, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology Genetics (MPI-CBG), Dresden).