Download Training the Next Generation in Basic Science

Summer 2009
Training the Next Generation in Basic Science
BY HEATHER ROCK WOODS
In 1982, immunologist Sherie Morrison, ’63, PhD ’66, returned to Stanford for
a sabbatical in Professor Paul Berg’s biochemistry lab.
Big things were coming out of that lab—Berg himself had just won the Nobel
Prize in chemistry for the early development of recombinant DNA technology—and Morrison’s term there proved no exception.
Working with two Stanford colleagues, Leonard Herzenberg (now professor of
genetics, emeritus) and Vernon Oi, ’76, PhD ’80, Morrison built on one of Berg’s
technologies to create a way to mass-produce specific kinds of antibodies—the
body’s means for finding dangerous cells and marking them for destruction.
Their patent for functional antibody technology is one of Stanford’s top royalty
generators and the basis of medicines for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, respiratory illness in young children, and clot prevention.
“I went into this because of the fun of doing science. Every day there are new
challenges and puzzles to solve,” says Morrison. Now a professor of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics at UCLA, she holds many patents
and continues to genetically engineer antibodies to target cancer, deadly
toxins, and fungal and viral infections. She adds, “It’s a tremendous bonus to
see my work get translated into therapeutic benefit.”
ABOVE: Nobel Prize–winning chemist Paul Berg
in front of the Beckman Center for Molecular and
Genetic Medicine, which he helped to found.
PHOTO: Steve Fisch
To thank Berg and his wife, Millie, for their hospitality, and to show appreciation for their Stanford educations, she and her husband, Donald Morrison, PhD
’65, recently established the Paul and Mildred Berg Graduate Fellowship. Their
$500,000 gift, matched by the university, creates a $1 million endowment to
maintain the fellowship for graduate students in biology.
During the fruitful sabbatical at Stanford, both of the Morrisons enjoyed the
lab’s supportive environment and fun group of people. She did work that
proved especially valuable to her career, and he, now a professor in the Anderson Graduate School of
Management at UCLA, reconnected with Stanford mentors and took and taught classes related to marketing
science. The academic couple has managed to work at the same institutions since their graduate days on
the Farm, and make a point of mentoring graduate students.
For Millie and Paul Berg, the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research,
Emeritus, the greatest honor comes from the sentiment underlying the gift. “We are thrilled
by Sherie’s feelings that her stay in my lab was so rewarding,” he says.
The gift is also eminently practical: According to Sherie Morrison,
graduate students are fundamental to the discoveries that come out of
a good research lab. Alongside faculty members, they run and analyze
experiments, propose new questions, author scientific papers, and
present results. By providing a secure and enduring source of graduate
student support, the Berg Fellowship will help Stanford attract the best
and brightest. It will also allow professors to allocate more of the
money from prized federal grants directly to their research
while still ensuring their hardworking students have the backing they deserve.
Berg shares Morrison’s deep commitment to graduate students. As he said in his 1980 Nobel lecture, “Those who
have worked with students and experienced the discomfort of their curiosity, the frustrations of their obstinacy,
and the exhilaration of their growth know firsthand the
magnitude of their contributions.” n
Sherie Morrison, ’63, PhD ’66, and Donald Morrison, PhD ’65.
PHOTO: Courtesy of the Morrisons
© 2009 Stanford University. All Rights Reserved.
Stanford Benefactor is a publication of the Office of Development n Contact: [email protected]
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