It was another busy year for the Banbury Center in 2011. The Center was used for 34 events with a total of 686 participants. There were 24 science-related meetings, together with six lecture courses run by the Meetings and Courses Program and two Watson School Topics in Biology courses. Of the 686 participants, 511 were from the United States (from 35 different states) and 96 from Europe (16 different countries). The truly international character of the Center’s program is shown by the fact that participants came from a total of 25 countries worldwide.

Eric Kandel talks to the NIMH Brain Camp

Banbury Center fosters and promotes research by providing a venue for meetings other than those dealing with scientific topics, for example by providing training for young scientists and physicians at the beginnings of their careers. The National Institute of Mental Health held its third “Brain Camp” for young physicians, to introduce them to the latest basic research relevant to their work. The Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds returned with their fellows drawn from Europe and North America for a “Communicating Science” workshop. The fellows come and are subjected to a rigorous training in writing skills, presentation of graphic information and preparing and delivering a scientific talk, so that they can excel in these skills as well as their research.

For the first time, we held a “Leadership in Bioscience” workshop. David Stewart received funding from American Express Foundation under their Leadership Program for a short course where participants were to be instructed in things scientists need to be able to do–in addition to their research-to succeed. The first course was held in 2011, organized by Carl Cohen, co-author of Lab Dynamics: Management Skills for Scientists, published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. The course drew participants from institutes throughout the USA.

We also promote research by hosting meetings where a small number of members of groups or associations come together to discuss policy affecting their work. There were four such examples this year. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) established a network of biobanks to act as clearing houses to collect and supply biopsies, DNA and cell cultures to researchers. In June representatives of the NCI Biobanks came to Banbury to review the effectiveness and discuss the future of the program. Discussions were guided by Laurence Baker (University of Michigan Cancer Center) and Scott Lowe (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), with input from Harold Varmus, Director of NCI.

Strategic Research Initiative for CFS

We have held several meetings on the chronic fatigue syndrome and this year we were delighted to host the Scientific Advisory Board of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Association. Over the past few years, CFS research has received high-profile media attention, for example over the claim (now discredited) that the XMR virus is a cause of CFS. This has generated both increased interest and unprecedented opportunities for progress. The goals of the meeting was for the Scientific Advisory Board to provide guidance on research strategies as to encourage innovative research focused on early detection, objective diagnosis and effective treatment.

The third meeting in this group was a meeting of the editorial board of the journal FEBS. Banbury Center provided a quiet haven for the editorial board of FEBS to meet with the journal’s staff and discuss the performance and future direction of the journal.

Finally, representatives of the Epigenomics of Plants International Consortium (EPIC), funded by NSF, came to Banbury in November. The Consortium was established to co-ordinate and promote research on deciphering the plant epigenome. Participants discussed the intellectual questions and transformative methodologies and infrastructure needs required to do this, as well as the means to engage funding agencies and the international research community as a whole.

L. Garraway, R. Nusse, H. Varmus

The broad sweep of scientific topics of Banbury Center meetings change from year to year. One year it may be neuroscience and psychiatric disorders, another human genetics disorders. This year the focus was on cancer, in particular on treatments for cancer. The first meeting was Curing Melanoma and other cancers by targeted therapies, organized by Joseph Schlessinger (Yale University) and Jim Watson. It could not have been held at a more auspicious moment. In the course of the meeting, Jim Allison (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) learned that FDA had approved a monoclonal antibody therapy for metastatic melanoma that had been developed based on his work.

The second cancer meeting was Metformin and neoplasia. Metformin is an antidiabetic drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. It is the most widely prescribed antidiabetic in the world. Remarkably, epidemiological studies have shown that patients taking metformin have a lower risk of developing cancer. The mechanism(s) underlying this anticancer effect is far from clear, and was a focal point of the presentations and discussions at the meeting. Metformin has an added interest in the context of “repurposing” drugs. It is argued that drugs like metformin, which have been given to hundreds of millions of people and whose safety is established, should be fast-tracked for approval for other uses.

As long ago as 1995, Stan Prusiner organized the first Banbury Center meeting on prions. At that time,

D. Eisenberg, I. Vorberg

there were many controversial issues about the nature, replication and species specificity of these misfolded proteins. Prion-like particles became immensely important to the population of the United Kingdom in 1990 when patients were found suffering from what was called variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. The cause of the diseasewas demonstrated to be meat contaminated with neural material from cattle suffering with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. As a result a large proportion of the UK population had been exposed, leading to almost 200 deaths. Misfolded proteins are found in other disorders, for example Alzheimer’s disease, and there is recent evidence that Alzheimer’s disease amyloidosis can be transmitted to primates. That these disorders might be transmissible has important implications for public health and the time was clearly right for a critical review of the data on transmission of the amyloidoses, the mechanisms involved, and the implications for human health.

C. T. Caskey

Another area in which Banbury Center has long had an interest is the genetics of psychiatric disorders. In the early 1990s we held several meetings reporting on the progress of finding genes involved in these disorders using the only tools then available, linkage analysis. A later incarnation of this approach, genome wide association studies, has found many genes associated with psychiatric disorders, but the significance of these remains unknown. Now, new high through-put DNA sequencing techniques have made, or are about to make, it possible to sequence the whole exomes and genomes of large numbers of individuals. This will provide opportunities to develop new gene hunting strategies for complex genetic disorders. This meeting brought together experts to critically assess current strategies and to outline how genome scale sequencing can be used most effectively and efficiently.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Corporate Sponsor Program is a mainstay of the Banbury Center program, providing funding each year for a small number of meetings. We are very grateful to members of the Program for their support and happy when they wish to use Banbury Center for a meeting of their own choice. In 2011, both Astellas-OSI Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi-Aventis came to Banbury.

The Banbury Center could not operate at its high level without the hard work of many people. The Center is especially fortunate in having Janice Tozzo and Susanne Igneri ensuring that the meetings run smoothly, and Basia Polakowski making sure that participants are welcome in Robertson House. Sonny Leute, Fredy Vasquez and Joseph McCoy look after the grounds, dealing with vast amounts of leaves in the fall and, this year, vast amounts of snow in the winter. Jon Parsons is indefatigable in handling AV requirements and Connie Brukin took the photographs which enliven the report. Culinary Services feeds our participants and Housekeeping copes admirably with the rapid turnover of guests.

Original garage above and undergoing renovation in 1976

It is now 35 years since the garage of the Robertson’s estate was

Renovating the Conference Room, winter 2011

converted into the Conference Room and for the first time in that period, the Conference Room is undergoing a complete renovation. It is long overdue. In particular, the original wiring was not designed to take the load imposed by all the computers that participants bring, or the demands of modern projectors and copying machines. We will also upgrade all the ethernet cabling and generally bring the facility into the 21st century. The building has been emptied and turned over to the electricians, carpenters and painters, and we look forward to hosting meetings for the next 35 years!

Jan Witkowski
Executive Director