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Dare: 28 August 1979

: Stanley N. Cohen

Chairman, Department of Genetics

: Joshua Lederberg

History of Funding of Facilities for the Genetics Department

Dear Stan:

This is a recapitulation of the attached documents which pertain to -
the funding of the Genetics Department facilities in the S building.

I was able to come to Stanford in 1959 to found the Department in
large measure through the good will of the Departments of Biochemistry and
Pharmacology, which helped make room in the M building for the original
Spawning of the department. I do not have any documentation on the
funding of the M building, but am certain that the research programs of
the Genetics Department were included in appropriate measure as justification
for the grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and of the sources especially
for the equipina of the building at that time. However, that can be thought
of as belonging to the pre history of the present question.

The funding arrangements for the S building are most clearly documented
in the application RC-1166 which was submitted to NIH in September 1962 for
a matching construction grant. Page 12 shows a runout cost of 5.6 millign
dollars (net of the NASA supported construction (about 19,000 aross ft.¢)
which, being already federally fully funded, had to be excluded from the
calculation.) Of that total amount, $ 1 million each were secured from
the RockerTeller Foundation and Joseph Kennedy Foundation; the remaining 3s
million from general development funding of the university's campaian.

The Kennedy Foundation was well aware of the prospective matching arant,
and in fact this was used as a substantial argument to them for the amount of
leverage that their contribution would offer. , The Kennedy Foundation grant of
1 million dollars is documented in Mr. Shrivers letter of January 4, 1962 and
it makes clear that the entire building was expected to constitute "one of the
nations most advanced facilities for medical research; in particular the third
Floor was to be designated as the Kennedy Laboratories for Molecular Medicine”.
As detailed in our applications to the Kennedy Foundation and in their response,
our mutual expectation was that the Kennedy Laboratories would provide both
a substratum of basic research in genetics and molecular biolocy and the
interdigitation of these subjects with neurobiology and relevant aspects of
pediatric research. The third floor space was then to be divided more or
less evenly between the departments of genetics and pediatrics for these
purposes with the expectation that research programs in the department of
obstretrics would also be facilitated in so far as they could be related to
the central purposes of the laboratory. The third floor was amply funded

in its entirety by the Kennedy Foundation grant and the corresponding NIH
matching money.

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Stanley N. Cohen
28 August 1979
Page 2

Separate from these considerations, we received a grant from NASA to
the extent of $500,000 which was intended to cover the full expenses of
construction totaling about 10,000 gross square feet - some of which was *
in the basement and some of which comprised designated laboratories on the _
third floor. To that extent, the space occupied by the Genetics Department
on the 3rd floor was covered in part by NASA, in part by the Kennedy - NIH
matching funding so that an even larger share of those dollars contributed
to the general construction requirements of the entire building: The grant
of the Rockefeller Foundation was also motiviated by the support that would
be given to the programs of the Genetics department; and to that extent that
is still an additional credit beyond what is already mentioned to the role
of the department in attracting funding for its facilities.

I do not believe there can be any doubt about the extent to which the
activities of the Genetics Department have fully corresponded to the
expectations laid upon us by our donors and by our own representations.

The department, through Dr. Levinthal's work and my own,made important
contributions to NASA's missions in planatery biology. In addition, the
bioengineering efforts, that were a further motive that NASA clearly
expressed in its grant, have been reflected in such successful programs

as the development of the ACME and then later the SUMEX computer systems,
and of the FACS cell sorter instrumentation. We initiated research proarams
in chemical neurobiology with the appointment of Professor Eric Shooter
within the Genetics Department, a seed which has eventually flowered in the
development of the autonomous department which he now leads. Every other
research program of the department of genetics has contributed directly to
the development of molecular biology and molecular medicine which was our
promise to the Kennedy Foundation. .

We understood from the very beginning that we had the responsibility
to be helpful to the development of research activities of neighboring
departments and can be said to have contributed extensively in many ways,
including the relaxation of space to such departments as Radiology, Medicine
and Pediatrics so that the space finally left to the operations of members
of the Genetics department remains even less than originally spoken for in
the aforementioned applications.

(It might be mentioned further that the "glass box" that houses the
SUMEX computer was originally fully funded by the Macy Foundation in order

to my the ACME computer system which was the immediate predecessor to
SUMEX.

Nor, given the very substantial volume of research funding by any
measure, per square foot or per capita, can the department be regarded as
having contributed less than its pro rata share of indirect cost recovery
through fully funded grants.
Stanley N. Cohen
28 August 1979
Page 3

It is not the place here to comment on the performance of other
departments in responding to these goals. It would be inappropriate for
there to be too rigid a calculus that fails to take account of changes in
the environment; and to the extent that space is used for the basic and
clinical research functions that were the primary justification for con-
structing this building - it would serve no useful purpose to insist on
more narowly defined compliance. All of our donors surely had in mind to
further the serious intellectual collaboration of the respective departments
in pursuing important biomedical research goals and this- would weigh more
heavily than specific continuity.

Regardless of the inexorable pressures on the functions and inteority
of a medical shcool, I hope that the environment will continue to nurture,
and perhaps do even better to further that style of research that was the
noble ideal of the Stanford Medical School when it was re-established in 1959.

.

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