Stanford physicist Steve Chu says all his best work -- including his Nobel Prize-winning research using lasers to cool and trap atoms -- grew out of fortuitous collaborations. Chance meetings, random conversations and even lab seating arrangements have affected what he studied and how those projects progressed.
So it makes sense that Chu is one of the forces behind a new project that would gather about 50 scientists, physicians and engineers from across campus into one 200,000-square-foot lab. The aim of the ambitious initiative -- evocatively dubbed Bio X -- is to hasten human understanding of biological systems by enabling the best brains in different fields to work side by side.
Proponents say this won't be just a lab -- it will change the way science is done. Professors will break out of their departmental cubbyholes and explore ideas with scholars whom they might otherwise never even meet. With the help of computer scientists, for example, biologists would crunch enormous amounts of data from the human genome project, which could advance their understanding of diseases. Engineers and physicians would devise new kinds of imaging equipment and better sensors. Neurologists, physicists and computer scientists might eventually team up to build a machine that mimics the human mind.
Dean of research Charles Kruger often mentions Bio X in the same breath with Fred Terman, the legendary postwar dean of engineering. By pushing the development of "radio electronics," Terman laid the groundwork for Silicon Valley and helped catapult Stanford into national prominence. The suggestion is that Bio X could have a comparable impact.
Two of Bio X's proponents are Chu and biochemistry professor James Spudich, who have been collaborating on projects for more than a decade. Spudich and his colleagues taught Chu the biochemistry he needed to study the physical properties of DNA polymers; Chu, in turn, helped Spudich understand the physics behind the little motorlike parts of molecules that cause muscle contractions.
A year ago, they started discussing an interdisciplinary program with an extended group of colleagues. Last July, they approached Kruger and other administrators with the idea of setting up a formal laboratory. Since then, a planning committee has met weekly. Details -- like where the new building will go and how much it might cost -- are still being ironed out, but fund raising is expected to start soon.
Stanford is not alone chasing this concept. Princeton, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Chicago have plans for similar interdisciplinary centers. But Chu and Spudich say Stanford is uniquely positioned for success because all of the departments involved are top-notch and already on the same campus.
If it works, Spudich thinks Bio X will have unanticipated rewards: "We will have failed if the only thing that happens is what we can imagine now."
