Each January, John Reed, Sanford-Burnham’s CEO, reviews the accomplishments of the previous year in his State of the Institute address, which he presents to our community at both our Orlando and San Diego locations. This year, he reflected not just on 2011, but on the past decade. It was 10 years ago—in January 2002—that Reed was first named CEO. An accomplished scientist in his own right, Reed has led the Institute during a period of tremendous growth.
“Momentum” was the word Reed used to encapsulate Sanford-Burnham’s last 10 years. The Institute expanded rapidly in both size and scope since he took up the reins, and it shows no signs of stopping. He remarked on how much this kinetic energy has contributed to economic development and, more importantly, to saving lives.
One area in which the growth is most evident is in the expansion from one campus, in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, to a second campus in Lake Nona, site of Orlando’s blossoming “medical city,” and a technology center on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The faculty and staff at the Lake Nona campus gathered for the State of the Institute address.
Another major growth area is the size of the faculty. Sanford-Burnham has grown from 48 full-time faculty in 2002 to 89 today. In the past year, the Institute has welcomed Randal J. Kaufman, professor and director of the Degenerative Disease Research Program, Richard E. Pratley and Xianlin Han, professors in the Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, Judith Altarejos, assistant professor in the Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, and Jorge Moscat and Maria Diaz-Meco, professors in Sanford-Burnham’s National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center.
Major partnerships initiated in 2011 include a collaboration with Pfizer, Inc. to speed drug development and Stand Up to Cancer’s selection of Kristiina Vuori, Institute president and Cancer Center director, for its melanoma Dream Team. In 2011, the Institute also signed an agreement with Oncothyreon Inc. to develop a potential new anti-cancer drug based on discoveries made in the laboratories of Reed and Maurizio Pellecchia.
It was also a successful year—capping an extraordinary decade—for philanthropy. The Institute thanks all of its supporters who have given so generously, including T. Denny Sanford, Malin Burnham, Jeanne and Gary Herberger, Art Brody, Joe Lewis, Pauline Foster, and Donald Bren.
The centerpiece of all of this activity is, of course, the science. Sanford-Burnham consistently ranks among the top five organizations worldwide for its scientific impact in the fields of biology and biochemistry (defined by citations per publication) and currently ranks third in the nation in NIH funding among all laboratory-based research institutions.
Because Sanford-Burnham publishes around 350 papers per year, Reed could only highlight a few of the vast number of scientific accomplishments that our researchers achieved during 2011. Please browse this blog for examples of recent developments in the understanding of diabetes and obesity, cancer, children’s health, infectious and inflammatory diseases, development and aging, degenerative diseases, and stem cells.
As Reed embarks on his second decade of leadership at Sanford-Burnham, the momentum continues. Moving forward, we continue to live our motto, “From Research, the Power to Cure.”