THE #NextGreatDiscovery

The #NextGreatDiscovery

Basic science aims to advance knowledge, not develop new drugs or cure disease. Yet today's biomedical innovations are only possible because of fundamental research conducted decades ago. As national funding priorities shift toward applied research, young basic scientists face the most challenging funding landscape in 50 years, diverting many of them to new careers altogether. Though impossible to divine where the experiments of Stanford investigators will lead them, investing in their work – and in basic science in general – is crucial to keeping the #NextGreatDiscovery alive.

Photography by Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos

Text by Kylie Gordon

W.E. Moerner demonstrates how molecules produce fluorescence

  • Inquire

    Postdoctoral fellow Pascale Guiton seeks to understand the biology of Toxoplasma gondii. The common parasite causes toxoplasmosis – a disease particularly harmful in the immunosuppressed – that affects millions globally. On the origin of her interest in microbiology, the researcher explains: "Growing up in Africa, you come in contact with disease. A lot of people get sick and we don't really understand why. There's this idea that everything is voodoo or witchcraft, and I knew it couldn't just be that. I just wanted to understand it."

  • Research

    To better understand how small-scale interactions at the molecular level affect life at the cellular level, graduate student Fabian Ortega researches Listeria monocytogenes invasion mechanisms in lab-grown cells and organoids. Though unraveling the secrets of bacterial infection has obvious benefits for humanity, the percentage of the U.S. federal budget devoted to research and development has dropped from nearly 10 percent in 1968 to about 3 percent in 2015.

  • Investigate

    Viviana Risca, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor William Greenleaf's lab, works to provide new insights into the DNA damage and repair processes underlying many diseases and developmental abnormalities. When just 17 years old, the researcher won what some have dubbed the "Junior Nobel Prize" – the nationwide Intel Science Talent Search – accompanied by a $100,000 scholarship. In the award-winning high school project, Risca was able to encode a secret message in a strand of DNA, and she is still investigating DNA to this day.

  • Explore

    Denise Monack, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, researches how bacteria cause disease. "In the future, there will be even less of a chance of having new approaches to the treatment of infectious disease if you have less people in the discovery and exploration phase," she says. Monack's observation that Salmonella kills macrophages – a type of immune cell generated in response to infection – formed the foundation for research on inflammasomes, activators of the body's inflammatory response.

  • Inspire

    Justin Sonnenburg, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, studies interactions between gut bacteria and host. On funding for basic science, he reflects: “We spend the bulk of our time writing grants to fund our research program, and when young scientists are training, they see this incredible burden of having to work really hard just to get a little bit of science going in your lab. So I think funding is really the primary concern with young scientists trying to decide whether they're going to stay in basic sciences or leave and go into another field.”

  • Innovate

    Michael Levitt is the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor in Cancer Research at the Stanford School of Medicine, and professor and chair of computational structural biology. In 2013 he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work developing multi-scale computer models for complex chemical systems. Chemical reactions happen so fast that it can be difficult to study them in real time. In the 1970s, Levitt and colleagues set out to address this problem by creating computer-simulated reactions that could be slowed down and studied in depth.

  • Persist

    W.E. Moerner is the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry and, by courtesy, professor of applied physics. In 2014, he won the Nobel Prize for his role in developing a microscopy technique that allows scientists to visualize living cells at the molecular level. Prior to Moerner's work, no one had ever actually seen a single molecule. Rendering the tiny particles visible at the smallest scale opened new possibilities for drug development and disease management.

  • Pascale Guiton transfers parasites to host cells in her laboratory
    Pascale Guiton transfers parasites to host cells in the tissue culture room of Professor John Boothroyd's lab. Her research on the host-pathogen interaction at the molecular level may one day lead to new drugs that can prevent disease.
    Pascale Guiton sets up a polymerase chain reaction
    At her lab bench, Pascale Guiton sets up a polymerase chain reaction to generate copies of Toxoplasma gondii DNA. T. gondii is one of the most common parasites, with an estimated one third of the global population infected.
  • Fabian Ortega looks through a microscope
    In the lab of Professor Julie Theriot, Fabian Ortega sets up time-lapse photography to capture the subtle activity of Listeria infecting and spreading throughout human cells over the course of a day.
    Fabian Ortega observes photosynthetic cyanobacteria
    "Different photosynthetic organisms enjoy different types of light," Ortega says, while passing through a neighboring lab. "These cyanobacteria are very good at harvesting energy from purple light."
  • Viviana Risca describes genome organization
    Viviana Risca describes genome organization, the basic biology behind her research. She hopes to discover a new methodology for mapping DNA structure as it is packaged in the nucleus of living cells.
    Researchers Arwa Kathiria and Viviana Risca meet to plan an experiment
    Researchers Arwa Kathiria and Viviana Risca meet to plan an experiment in the Greenleaf Lab, which focuses on understanding the structure and function of the physical genome.
  • Monack and postdoctoral fellow Jens Kortmann inspect an image of Salmonella Typhi
    Denise Monack inspects an image of Salmonella Typhi – the causative agent of typhoid fever – to determine whether the bacteria are making a virulence factor required for them to cause disease.
    Denise Monack meets with postdoctoral fellow Sky Brubaker
    Denise Monack "fell in love with microbes" at 12 years old when her father, a physician, brought home his microscope. "I used to look at pond water through it," Monack recalls. Here she meets with postdoctoral fellow Sky Brubaker.
  • Justin Sonnenburg meets with a graduate student on the deck
    Justin Sonnenburg meets with graduate student Will Van Treuren to define the scope of his dissertation. Such conversations are "awe-inspiring" and "like a fountain of youth for faculty," says Sonnenburg.
    The Sonnenburg family in their home garden
    Fiber consumption is the best way to promote healthy gut bacteria. Hence, the Sonnenburgs maintain a home garden where they grow polysaccharide-rich food. Pictured here, from left, are Claire, Erica and Camille Sonnenburg.
    Claire Sonnenburg arranges pumpkins on the mantle
    Claire arranges homegrown pumpkins on the mantle. Above, E. Coli swim on a canvas within view of the family's dinner table "to remind us of the trillions of 'friends' we dine with at each meal," says Justin Sonnenburg.
    Claire and Camille Sonnenburg read books
    Microscopes spanning decades line the top of a bookshelf behind Claire and Camille. Using Erica's childhood scope, the family inspects everything from head lice to plankton to bee stingers, says Justin Sonnenburg.
  • Photo of Michael Levitt
    "Spending on basic science pays off," Michael Levitt says. Research he conducted in the 1980s "has indirectly led to a $40-billion-a-year industry in anti-cancer drugs," though no one could have predicted that outcome, he says.
    Michael Levitt works in his home office on the Stanford campus
    Nobel Prize-winning Professor Michael Levitt works in his home office on the Stanford campus.
  • W.E. Moerner examines molecules on a screen in his laboratory
    After pumping single molecules with a red laser beam, W.E. Moerner examines them on a computer screen at one of the super-resolution imaging setups in his laboratory.
    W.E. Moerner demonstrates how molecules produce fluorescence
    W.E. Moerner demonstrates how molecules produce fluorescence, the signature wavelength of light used to detect single molecules.
    Moerner uses ham radio gear in his garage
    It's never all work and no play; when not in his lab, W.E. Moerner makes time for an amateur radio hobby. A member of the Stanford Amateur Radio Club, Moerner often broadcasts from ham radio gear in his garage at home.

Photo credit

Photo of Peter va AgtmaelPeter van Agtmael was born in Washington, DC, in 1981. From 2006-2013, he covered the post-9/11 wars and their consequences, working extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. He has won the ICP Infinity Award for Young Photographer, the Lumix Freelens Award, the Edward Murrow Award and numerous others. His book "Disco Night Sept 11" was named a "Book of the Year" by The New York Times Magazine, Time magazine, Mother Jones, Vogue, American Photo and Photo Eye. Peter joined Magnum Photos in 2008 and became a member in 2013.

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