"Breakthrough of the Year" Recognition Goes to CSHL Scientists

The feature story of the last issue of the Harbor Transcript (Silence is Golden: Keys to Cancer from Purple Petunias) described the groundbreaking research of CSHL scientist Greg Hannon. Greg and his colleagues have made a series of important and exciting discoveries concerning the properties and mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi). Moreover, they have developed methods for using RNAi to uncover genes that are involved in cancer and other diseases. An accompanying story in the same Harbor Transcript (The Silence Spreads) highlighted the work of several other CSHL scientists—including Shiv Grewal and Rob Martienssen—who, although they didn't necessarily plan it that way, have all contributed to a flowering of RNAi research at the Laboratory.

Greg Hannon

In the December 20 issue of Science magazine (one of the most prestigious science weeklies published today), the RNAi research of Greg, Shiv, and Rob was recognized together with work from other institutions as the "Breakthrough of the Year" for 2002 among all the sciences. If one regards the Nobel Prize as the scientific equivalent of an Academy Award (i.e. an "Oscar"), then one might say winning "Breakthrough of the Year" recognition from Science is akin to receiving a Golden Globe award. Congratulations Greg, Shiv, and Rob!

Collectively, the "Breakthrough of the Year" citation recognized the discovery that small RNA molecules play a surprising variety of key roles in cells: they can inhibit translation of messenger RNA into protein, cause degradation of other messenger RNAs, and even initiate complete silenceing of gene expression from the genome.

Shiv Grewal

The "Breakthrough of the Year" citation specifically characterized the work of Greg, Shiv, and Rob as "a crucial step" and as "they year's most stunning revelations." Researchers at the Carnegie Institute of Washington in Baltimore (Andrew Fire), the University of Massachusetts Medical School (Craig Mello), the University of Virginia (David Allis), and the University of Rochester (Martin Gorovsky) were also named by Science as having contributed significantly to the study of small RNA molecules and RNAi.

Rob Martienssen