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A source of both constancy and continual change at the MBL is the Whitman Center for Research and Discovery. Every year, hundreds of researchers from other institutions migrate to the MBL (which they affectionately call “Woods Hole”) to rub elbows with colleagues from around the world, and collectively dive into an intense period of research. For some, their MBL stay lasts a few months, but for many, the relationship continues over years, decades or entire careers.

On Wednesday, a group of Whitman Center investigators gathered in the lobby of their “home away from home,” Rowe Laboratory, to celebrate the rich tradition of biological discovery that they are carrying into the future. MBL President and Director Gary Borisy noted that several of those in attendance wore a red carnation and a round lapel pin with the MBL’s double seahorse crest. These were Whitman investigators who have had a laboratory at MBL for the past 20 years or more. “You cannot buy this pin at any price! This is a precious pin, the MBL pin,” Borisy said, laughing, but most of those gathered would agree.

The leadership of the Whitman Center (from left): Gary Borisy, MBL; Joan Ruderman, Harvard Medical School; Peter Armstrong, University of California-Davis; Bob Goldman, Northwestern University. Photo by Beth Armstrong

Bob Goldman of Northwestern University, director of the Whitman Center, said he has been coming to the MBL since 1963, and that is what “turned me on to becoming a cell biologist.” Joan Ruderman of Harvard Medical School, who is speaker of the MBL Corporation, said she first came to the MBL as a student in the 1974 Embryology course and “it changed my life.” She then returned for many years as a Whitman investigator, when the program was conducted in the old Whitman Building. Eventually, she said, building renovations were necessary to stay abreast of advances in cell research technologies, and she applauded the $18 million transformation of Whitman to the cutting-edge Rowe Laboratory in the mid-2000s.

Yet one person in the crowd topped everyone with his MBL “stripes.” Peter Armstrong of University of California-Davis, who studies immunity in the horseshoe crab, said he “may have been conceived in Woods Hole in 1938.” (Peter’s father, Philip, was a researcher and later director of the MBL from 1950-1965, and he secured the federal funds to have the original Whitman Building constructed.) Peter’s early years as “an MBL brat” aside, he has been a principal investigator in the Whitman Center since 1975, “and its been an enormously successful place to be,” he said. “Half of my publications list the MBL as a place where the research was conducted.”

Borisy also recognized several Whitman investigators who, in the past, had laboratories for two decades and more. To conclude, Borisy announced the establishment of a $2 million Whitman Endowment fundraising initiative, with an initial $500,000 matching commitment from MBL. This endowment will support two strategies: continuous building enhancements to maintain Rowe Laboratory as a state-of-the-art facility, and fellowship funds to continue to bring the world’s best researchers into the Whitman Center fold.

“The Whitman Center is a critical part of the MBL,” Borisy said. “It is a crossroads, a place where scientific ideas germinate and are tried out. The MBL will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2013, and since its very first year it has been a nexus for the world’s biologists. We aim to solidify support for the Whitman Center for the next 125 years.”

Some of the more than 200 Whitman investigators in 2011 gather on the steps of Lillie Laboratory. Those wearing red carnations have had a Whitman lab for the past 20 years or more. Photo by Beth Armstrong

By Amanda Rose Martinez

A Wednesday morning in Loeb Laboratory found the 2011 Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics & Survival (SPINES) students getting a lesson on the human brain. There to lead the cerebral tour was SPINES faculty member, Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, a neurosurgeon, world expert on brain tumors and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Quiñones-Hinojosa described each brain region, all the while weaving in stories of their function and the history of their discovery. His pace was swift and rich with information, alive with his enduring fascination for what he calls “the most beautiful organ.” As he went, Quiñones-Hinojosa fired off questions to SPINES’ neuroscientists-in-training, compelling them to keep up.

“So where is memory formation?” Quiñones-Hinojosa asked. “Memory formation is right here in the hippocampus. So you can take one hippocampus out. What happens if you take them both out? No new memories. You can have the old memories, but no new ones.”

“You can barely see the curve right here,” he continued, tracing his way through the limbic system to a small, almond-shaped region called the amygdala. “That’s how movies play with us. They show you the movie “Silence of the Lambs” and they make you afraid. They make you feel fear for your life. They’re right here. They’re playing to the amygdala.”

At one point, Quiñones-Hinojosa paused to address the moment’s larger significance: “I get to touch human brains and human lives,” he said. “Not only do I give people hope in the operating room, but outside of the operating room, I get to do research. And I give them hope that one day we’ll find a cure for brain cancer. And then I come here and hang out with you guys. I mean this is the coolest thing I could do in the world.”

On Friday, July 8, Quiñones-Hinojosa will give a lecture entitled: “Bridging the Gap in the Fight Against Cancer: From the Operating Room to the Laboratory,” as part of the Friday Evening Lecture Series. The event will take place in Lillie Auditorium at 8:00 p.m. For more information, visit: http://www.mbl.edu/events/events_friday_07_08_11.html. Quiñones-Hinojosa’s lecture is supported by the Joe L. Martinez, Jr. and James G. Townsel Endowed Lectureship.

Keith Trujillo, co-director of SPINES, with students during a class led by Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa. Photo by Tom Kleindinst

@MBL is firing up the “Photo of the Week” series again! EVERYONE on the MBL campus is invited to participate. We’d love to feature your shots of life at the MBL: what’s unique, intriguing, beautiful, funny, classic. Please send “Photo of the Week” submissions to mblnews@mbl.edu, and include caption information (who, what, when, where, why). Please ask permission from anyone featured in your photos before you submit them.

Today’s Photo of the Week heralds a beloved Woods Hole tradition: the July Fourth Parade. In this photo taken on July 4, 1976 (the Unites States’ bicentennial year), leading the parade as Uncle Sam is the late Albert Szent-Györgyi, a longtime MBL scientist and trustee and a 1937 Nobel Prize laureate. To his right, playing the fife, is Phyllis Goldstein, who will be memorialized this Sunday at the MBL (please see blog post below for wonderful, musical tribute to Phyllis). Many thanks to Allen Rosenspire of Wayne State University, who was an Embryology student in 1976, for sending this photo to MBL Communications.

The 2011 July Fourth parade, which as always will feature whacky and whimsical floats dreamed up by MBL students, will start at noon on School Street at the Children’s School of Science and trumpet its way down Water Street to the MBL campus.

July 4, 1976 Woods Hole parade with Albert Szent-Györgyi (Uncle Sam) leading, and Phyllis Goldstein playing the fife. Photo by Alan Rosenspire

by Amanda Rose Martinez

At 7:15 PM on Tuesday, June 28, the long-cherished, Woods Hole tradition of Folk Singing Night returned to the MBL Club. For 47 years, Phyllis Goldstein, who passed away in January this year, led the event. Her legacy lives on both in the songs she left behind and the generations of folk singers she inspired. “Phyllis was very passionate about the music and about the tradition,” says Jeremy Korr, who grew up attending Folk Singing Night and will lead the event this season. “If I can help everyone sing half as strongly as Phyllis did, then I think Folk Singing will be in good shape.”

Watch the audio slideshow below for an interview with Jeremy Korr. A memorial service will be held for Phyllis this Sunday, July 3 at 4 PM in Lillie Auditorium.