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Eric Lander of Broad Institute named White House science adviser to president elect Joe Biden.
A short thread w/ a few observations about Eric Lander who i have previously called "the single most influential and powerful scientist in America."
1/n https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/01/15/biden-lander-ostp/
A short thread w/ a few observations about Eric Lander who i have previously called "the single most influential and powerful scientist in America."
1/n https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/01/15/biden-lander-ostp/
2/n first of all, i work for MIT and Lander's institute, the Broad Institute, is a big deal on campus, maybe the most important deal, bringing in much funding, prestige, and shaping great events.
In comparison, I am a mere munchkin. Context
In comparison, I am a mere munchkin. Context
3/n Lander is a "geneticist" but he wasn't always. He was a a mathematician and economist I think, before moving into bio.
Historic insight: computation to revolutionize genetics/biology. This move is chronicled in an MIT documentary "Controversy to Cure" about Kendall Square
Historic insight: computation to revolutionize genetics/biology. This move is chronicled in an MIT documentary "Controversy to Cure" about Kendall Square
4/n
Kendall Square is the supercluster of biotech companies, univ labs, students, VCs, on the edge of MIT Campus.
But it wasnt always. As documentary says, "Kendall was once a desolate landscape" of shuttered factories.
Watch it here.
Kendall Square is the supercluster of biotech companies, univ labs, students, VCs, on the edge of MIT Campus.
But it wasnt always. As documentary says, "Kendall was once a desolate landscape" of shuttered factories.
Watch it here.
5/n Long story short, and from memory: Lander and David Baltimore put a computer (gasp!) in some closet upstairs in the Whitehead Institute
Thus the genome era begins---it's going to be big data era, a computer era.
Thus the genome era begins---it's going to be big data era, a computer era.
6/n
Lander's mark on the physical space in Kendall is unmistakable.
As we once wrote "He’s the creator of an immense research empire at MIT" and the "his latest research building in Cambridge towers above the previous two as if they were so many Russian dolls"
Lander's mark on the physical space in Kendall is unmistakable.
As we once wrote "He’s the creator of an immense research empire at MIT" and the "his latest research building in Cambridge towers above the previous two as if they were so many Russian dolls"
7/n Lander is widely viewed as a genius and also as a somewhat Machiavellian figure ... he's real, real sharp and strategic.
Good to have him on your team.
"Science profits from the ambitious" was how someone once described it. https://twitter.com/antonioregalado/status/692003079189827585
Good to have him on your team.
"Science profits from the ambitious" was how someone once described it. https://twitter.com/antonioregalado/status/692003079189827585
8/n Lander in the '99-'02 period, during the Human Genome Project, pretty much was the one who fended off J. Craig Center, who threatened to create a commercial gene map before the public sector could. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB981930603417072336
9/n Important to know that in the HGP Lander closely allied with Francis Collins, then director of the NIH genome branch, and now the director of the NIH, to get stuff done.
Any story about Lander's power is also about Collins' power.
Here they are with Obama.
Any story about Lander's power is also about Collins' power.
Here they are with Obama.
10/ Cleverly, very cleverly, and importantly, Collins survived at NIH Director throughout Trump Administration. Hard to think of any head of a big agency that survived.
And imagine. Fauci reports to Collins.
And imagine. Fauci reports to Collins.
11/ What does Lander represent? To biologists he is "Big Science". Big labs, lots of sequencing machines. That's good because makes a lot of data. Bad because sucks up all $$ for "industrialized, mindless science"
a profile of lander in statnews here. https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/25/why-eric-lander-morphed/
a profile of lander in statnews here. https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/25/why-eric-lander-morphed/
12/ I need to leave it here for now. But with a bang. From Broad 2019 tax forms.
Broad revenue: $537,000,000
Lander compensation: ~$2 million
(yes .. that is more than .5 billion taken in as grants, gifts etc by an academic institute in 1 year!)
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/263428781/09_2020_prefixes_25-26%2F263428781_201906_990_2020092917336465
Broad revenue: $537,000,000
Lander compensation: ~$2 million
(yes .. that is more than .5 billion taken in as grants, gifts etc by an academic institute in 1 year!)
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/263428781/09_2020_prefixes_25-26%2F263428781_201906_990_2020092917336465
13/ Tomorrow I might try to guess what Lander will represent in Biden admin, and how he might shape things.
But keep in mind the major sentiment today is that real scientists are back in the White House https://twitter.com/jsrosenblum/status/1350208286004375553
But keep in mind the major sentiment today is that real scientists are back in the White House https://twitter.com/jsrosenblum/status/1350208286004375553
14/sidenote: You may have noticed that the Broad Institute appears with unusual regularity as glowing subject of stories in The New Yorker. I am told this is because Eric Lander ('78) went to Princeton and so did NYR editor David Remnick ('81). Some kind of supperclub deal.
15/ Whereas I went to Stuyvesant H.S. in New York City and so did Eric Lander. Stuyvesant is a math and science magnet school that has been in the news recently because it uses tests for entry and as a result has >75% Asian students.
17/ Now science is being elevated to the cabinet and Lander attains the apex of his influence.
This account proposes he's a man in the mold of post-WWII technocrat, a Frederick Terman or who knows even an Robert Oppenheimer https://twitter.com/themindscourge/status/1350204421532053505
This account proposes he's a man in the mold of post-WWII technocrat, a Frederick Terman or who knows even an Robert Oppenheimer https://twitter.com/themindscourge/status/1350204421532053505
18/ Apropos of the prior tweet, Biden's letter to Lander opens with a reference to Vannevar Bush (F.D.R.'s science adviser), and poses five big questions for Lander.
Definitely worth reading. https://buildbackbetter.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/OSTP-Appointment.pdf
Definitely worth reading. https://buildbackbetter.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/OSTP-Appointment.pdf
19/ So Lander in captures much praise and criticism, too.
On the praise side, I once heard Aviv Regev, his former deputy (now at Roche) describe Lander this way.
"Best leader, best scientist, best friend"
That stuck with me.
On the praise side, I once heard Aviv Regev, his former deputy (now at Roche) describe Lander this way.
"Best leader, best scientist, best friend"
That stuck with me.
20/ On the criticism side, Lander is crosswise with two women who eventually won the Nobel Prize for CRISPR.
His effort to secure credit and patents for Broad Institute were criticized as trying to rewrite history and writing out these two a bit. see @mbeisen for more on that
His effort to secure credit and patents for Broad Institute were criticized as trying to rewrite history and writing out these two a bit. see @mbeisen for more on that
21/ Lander also raised a toast to DNA discoverer James Watson on his birthday a couple of years back. Set off a series of events which let to Watson finally getting his portrait ripped down at Cold Spring Harbor.
Lander made a rare tweet to apologize. https://twitter.com/eric_lander/status/996057327164936194
Lander made a rare tweet to apologize. https://twitter.com/eric_lander/status/996057327164936194
22/ Lander is also in favor of a moratorium on CRISPR babies. Whereas CRISPR Nobelist Jennifer Doudna is not and hasn't signed his petitions. I do think that Lander occupied the moral high ground a bit on this one, taking space from Doudna. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00726-5
23/ Back in 2015, when Obama was president and we'd just seen first reports of CRISPR in human embryos, I was surprised to learn the Dem administration was dead against crispr-in-IVF even at that early moment. Likely on the advice of Collins and Lander, though i never confirmed.
