NANJING MEDICAL UNIVERSITY ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

1997 Issue 4; Total Issues: 7

Editorial Board of This Issue

Editor-in-Case
Wei, Qingyi (PH78), qing wei @ notes.mdacc.tmc.edu, Houston, USA

Associate Editors:
Bao, Gang (MD78), [email protected], Kentucky, USA
Chen, Bei (PH80), [email protected], San Francisco, USA
He, Zhigang (MD79), [email protected], San Francisco, USA
Huang, Xuepei (PH77), [email protected], Wisconsin, USA
Jin, Ning (NS84), [email protected], Chicago, USA
Liu, Guoqin (GS79), [email protected], Vancouver, Canada
Liu, Qianjin (MD78), [email protected], USA
Liu, Yongjian (MD78, [email protected], San Francisco, USA
Liu, Youcheng (PH78), [email protected], Boston, USA
Lu, Li, (MD77) [email protected], Baltimore, USA
Lu, Shan (MD77) [email protected], Boston, USA
Shen, Benquan (PH78), [email protected], San Francisco, USA
Tao, Liangfeng (PH79), [email protected], Boston, USA
Wang, Fuhu (MD79), [email protected], Canada
Yang, Qinghua (MD78), [email protected], USA
Yang, Wei(PH79), [email protected], Nevada, USA
Yu, Yongjia (PH77), [email protected], Boston, USA

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Editor's Words:

Due to limited contributions and being short-handed, the Editorial Board decided to reduce the frequency of publishing to Quarterly. The editors are grateful to many contributors who donated their limited time to share with us their experience and skills that may be useful to our readers. The highlight of this issue is the reorganization of ONMUAA and the formation of new administration. From this issue, we will invite our alumni to share with us their experience in their own career development. Hope our readers can also find something here to make themselves relaxed for a moment. Again, your participation is vital to this joint venture. Everybody is encouraged to contribute to the next coming issues. Send your contributions to us and let your voice be heard. Tell us your stories about yourself and your classmates. Original contributions are encouraged. Make sure, your opinions will be reflected through this channel. Please acknowledge the sources if abstracts from other internet publications are used. The contents of the Newsletter do not necessarily reflect the ONMUAAUs opinions. Contributors are responsible for the contents they submitted.
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CONTENTS

1. New ONMUAA organization:
A) Letter from the President and Board Chair -- By Wei Yang (PH79) &;Yongjian Li (MD78)
B) New administration -- By Wei Yang (PH79)
2. Short News -- By Editors
3. Experience from ONMUAA alumni
A) What a life of being a RBOSSS in academia -- By Shan Lu (MD77)
B) Surviving in Today's Pharmaceutical Industry -- By Yue Lin (MD77)
4. Letters from Alumni
a) New experience back to NMU -- By XinSheng Ding (MD77)
5. Cyberspace news and relaxants for those stressed
_________________________________________________________

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1. New ONMUAA organization
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A) Letter from the President and Board Chair - - - By Wei Yang (PH79) and Yongjian Liu (MD78)

Dear Alumni of ONMUAA,
We are pleased to serve you in the years of 1997-1998. Thank you very much for your efforts in the reelection of the new administration. We are pretty sure that you, together with all other alumni oneither "noisy" or "silent" side, experienced an exciting and challenging moment at the first anniversary of our Alumni Association (AA). At the time of the "administrative" transition, we are in deep debt to our dedicated pioneer alumni in the previous administration led by Shan LU (MD77) and Qingyi Wei (PH78) who laid a solid foundation for current and future AA administration and activity.

The the newly established governing board and executive committee will continue its mission to SERVE our overseas alumni in every way it can. Therefore we urge everyone who are inspired by the enthusiasms and volunteerism to join our activities as much as possible. At this point, your suggestions for running this organization are especially important. (PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO [email protected] or [email protected])

We will continue and strengthen such major activities as:
1. Maintaining and updating the Association_s Home Page and an E-mail Center;
2. Communicating with mother school NMU, including such issues as to smooth the procedures of getting official transcripts, and to help NUM obtain first hand information from abroad;
3. Publishing Quarterly Newsletters;
4. Compiling and updating AAUs directory, which included 350 member (The 1st edition has been published in October. If you did not receive
one hardcopy, please let us know.).

Your participation is a guaranty and a key for fulfilling our goal: to make our AA a more informative and entertaining network. Together we will be strong and confident in our lives and careers on the foreign lands.

B) New administration -- By
Wei Yang (PH79)

ONMAA Executive Committee, 1997-1998:

Wei Yang (PH79), President
Liangfeng Tao (PH79), President-Elected
Qingyi Wei (PH78), President-Past
Ning Jin (NS84), E-Mial Center Coordinator
Fuhu Wang (MD79), Homepage Coordinator
Bei Chen (PH80), Treasury

Yongjian Liu (MD78), Chair of the Governing Board
Board members (1997-1999):
Bao, Gang, MD78, Louisville;
Cao Guohua, GS 84, Boston;
Chen, Bei, PH80, San Francisco;
Chen, Jianxin, Boston; DS78 <[email protected]>
Chen, Jin, PH78, Stanford;
Ding, Xinsheng, MD 77, Philadelphia;
Fang, Lei, MD 84
Gu, Ping and Liu Gongjie, MD80
He, Zhigang, MD79, San Francisco;
Huang, Xupei, PH77, Madison;
Jiang, Frank, MD77, St Louis;
Jin, Ning, NS84, Ann Arbor;
Li, Donglin, PH83, Boston;
Li, Jie. MD77, Boston;
Yue Li (MD77), Boston;
Lin, Lijian. SC78
Lin, Yue, MD77, St. Louis;
Liu, Guoqing, GS79, Vancourver,
Liu, Jianghong, NS84
Liu, Qianjin, MD78
Liu, Qinjin, MD78
Liu, Wenhui, MD77
Liu, Youcheng, PH78, Boston; [email protected]
Liu, Yongjian, MD78, San Francisco; [email protected]
Liu, Zijun, DS78
Lu, Li, MD77, Baltimore;
Lu, Shan, MD77, Boston; [email protected]
Mao, Li, MD77, Houston;
Mu, Jianlong Mu, MD79, Bar Harbor, Maine;
Shen, Benquan, PH78, San Francisco;
Sun, Banghua, FC, Los Angeles,
Tai, Qing, MD82, Detroit;
Tao Liangfeng, Boston; [email protected]
Tao, Yiwen, MD78,
Wang, Fuhu, MD78, Ottawa;
Wang, Shuyi, FC
Wei, Qingyi, PH78, Houston;
Wu, Yi, DM77, Boston;
Wu, Yongning, PH78
Wu, Youmin, MD77
Xue, Jianping, PH78, Boston;
Yang, Qinghua, MD78
Yang, Qingshan, MD66
Yang, Wei, PH79, North Reno;
Yu, Yongjia, PH77, Boston;
Zhang, Ming, MD79
Zhang, Yamei, MD77, Australia;
Zhao, Weiguo, MD78
Zhu, Hong, SC78

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2. Short News
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(All names are listed alphabetically, if possible)

The President of PRC JIANG Zeming visited Boston November 1, 1997. ONMUAA was involved in most welcome activities for Jiang's visit during the whole October. With Wei Yang and Youcheng Liu's endorsement, ONMUAA joined the New England Chinese Welcome Committee early October, which consisted of almost 40 national or area's associations, companies and organizations including 11 alumni associations. We published 2 advertisements in Chinese newspaper to welcome Jiang's visit. One whole page ad was published in Boston News, with ONMUAA's Chinese name together with listers. This is the first time for our association to be public to Chinese in New England area. Through this ad, Liangfeng Tao as the responsible person was contacted by one NMU alumna, Dr. SauWah Wong (MD59) in Newton,MA, who did not know ONMUAA before. She's very happy to become our new member and promised to provide a list of alumni in Hong Kong. The other ad was published in 1/3 of first page in the World Journal, the most popular Chinese newspaper in the States. In the morning of Nov.1, most of ONMUAA members in MA went to Boston to welcome and support Jiang's visit. Alumni Jianping Xue, Xianhong Yu, Donglin Li, Jie Li, Guohua Cao, Maomao Wang, Liangfeng Tao and their family met near Harvard's Sanders Theater where Jiang would deliver his speech. We experienced so exciting time , seeing the welcome team of more than 3,000 people with Chinese and American Flags and flowers. Some alumni had hot debate with some Tibetan or Americam demonstrators.
(Contributed by Liangfeng Tao, PH79)

* * * * * * * *

The new administrative leaders in NMUSs 1st affiliated hospital are as follows: President WU Guanlin; Vice President HUANG Jun (in charge of clinical, research and teaching work); Vice President WANG Hong (in charge of administrative and foreign affairs); Vice President MA Jianping (in charge of supplies etc.); Vice President ZHANG Youren (in charge of construction)
(Contributed by XinSheng Ding, MD77)

* * * * * * * *

The 1997-1998 fundraising started by sending the 1st edition of ONMUAA directory to 180 individuals who have provide their mailing address to us. Among these alumni, 17 undelivered. 70 responded by returning the survey questionnaires with either a letter or short note through mailing ? So far nearly 40 made donations to ONMUAA, which resulted more than $600 (more than we raised last year). We are very grateful to those who wamheartly support our AA, which encourages us to do better job in the years to come.

Special thanks goes to K.W.Chang Tseng (MD47), Sauwah Wong (MD59), Chiensong Kao (MD66), our elderly generation of alumni who expressed their strong support by active involvement in and their contribution to ONMUAA.
(Contributed by Yang Wei, PH79)

* * * * * * * *

On Oct. 26, Prof. Feng-Lou Ma, the ex-Director of the Dept of Public Health, and Prof. Han-Ming Dai, the ex-head of Epidemiology lab, visited San Franciso Bay Area. Luckily, they could squeeze some time out of their tight schedule and met with about 10 ONMUAA members in the area. Among the people they met were Bei Chen (PH 80), Hongzhong Wan (Son-in-law of NMU), Jin Chen (PH 78), Jianwei Zhou (PH 77), Shuyi Wang (FC), Ming-Hong Xie (MD 78), Ben-Quan Shen (PH 78) and others. Both of Prof. Ma and Prof. Dai were retired recently, but are still very actively involved in teaching, researching, and serving in many professional societies. They were very glad to see how our NMU members organized, help each other and help NMU. They wish every success for all of our ONMUAA members and families. The meeting was organized by Bei Chen and Ben-Quan Shen. We had a lunch together at the New Asia resturant in SF China town.
(Contributed by Benquan Shen, PH78)

* * * * * * * *

Zi-Jun Liu (DS78) and Gaoman GU (DS 78) have left Kagoshima, Japan for Seattle, USA on November 5. His new address is University of Washington, Dept. of Orthodontics, Box 357446, Seattle WA 98195-7446 USA
Tel: (206)685-1096, Fax: (206)685-8163
e-mail: [email protected] (effective from Dec. 1st)

Shunying Wu (NS78) just moved to Ohio from Virginia to join her husband. She can be reached at the following address: 2685 Shoreland #C6, Akron, OH 44314
Tel: 330 848-4977. Also congratulations on the arrival of her new born daughter
as her son turns two years old.

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Special thanks to the following alumni who have made their donations in the 1997-98 fundraising compagne through mailing:
Gang Bao (MD78), Hong Cai (Ped85, GS90), Guohua Cao (GS84),
Lei Chen (PH79), Mei Deng (MD77), Ming Fan (MD78),
Jianhua Gong (MD78), Lufei HU (GS85), Beiru Jia (MD77),
Chiensong Kao (MD66), Jie Li (MD77), Xiaosong Li (MD78),
Jianhong Liu (NS84), Shan Lu (MD77), Joan Pao (MD47),
Wu Song (MD78), Liangfeng Tao (PH79), K.W.Chang Tseng (MD47),
Fei Sun (PH77), Shaowei Wan (PH79), Jinjin Wang (MD77),
Maomao Wang (PH79), Qingyi Wei (PH78), Sauwah Wong (MD59),
Youming Wu (MD77), Yi Xia (MD78), Liqun Xiao (MD78),
Yaming Xue (PH78), Jingrong Yan (PH78), Wei Yang (PH79),
Fen Yao (MD78), Liping Yu (PH77), Ming Zhang (MD79),
Baiyu Zheng (PH78), Yiqing Zhou (MD77), Hong Zhu (SC78).

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

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3. Experience from ONMUAA alumni
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A) What a life of being a RBOSSS in acedemia? -- By Shan Lu (MD77)

Last week, Liu Yongjian (MD78) picked up a topic for the next issue of ONMUAA newsletter: how is the life being a "boss" running a research lab in an academic institution? As you all know, Yongjian is a thinker. His question is quite relevent to any of us still doing research in universities. I would like to share some of my personal experience with our alumni.

DEFINITION. In the last few years, more and more Chinese scholars originally coming from mainland China were promoted to faculty positions in US universities. Some still work in a big research group under a very famous senior faculty, some became completely independent, either staying in the same campus or moving to a new institution. I guess Yongjian's question is on the latter group and they are certainly the admired ones for many who are still in their postdoctoral or non-independent status. At my current medical school, we have 4-5 mainlander Chinese having our own labs. These people are the PIs - principal investigators of their research projects. (Note: PI can also be used more extensively to include anyone with a grant even in a large group).

PI's LIFE. Psychologically, the number one thing I feel good about is "I am the boss!" Nobody can tell me what I need to do in my daily work. Especially in an academic environment, what time you come to work or to leave is your own business. You can decide the pace of our work. I can even write something for ONMUAA. I can upgrade my computer to whatever the model as long as I have the grant money. Most importantly, you can decide the research direction as you see fit to really test your potential. By the way, the salary is not quite high when it is compared with the similar levels in the pharmaceutical companies.

On the other hand, the pressure is mounting up. Yes, I am the boss, but I also have to support the group. Just like being a father, you wonder where is the money to support a family, now a PI has to constantly find money to support the lab. Therefore most PIs are spending their time on "fundraising", either directly writing grants, or writing papers or attending meetings to indirectly pave the way to get more funding. This usually takes almost a full time job. Besides, there are responsiblities for department and university, such as sitting in certain committees or
doing some teaching, inviting seminar speakers etc. The time left for a PI to physically do bench experiment is very little to none.

So, the PI has to rely on postdoctoral fellows or students to produce data. In the past, you always hate the "boss"; but now you are on the other side of the fence. Remember those days when most of us did not want to work for an oriental boss (Chinese, Taiwaness, Japaness...) because they work too hard and too demending? Ha! Now you are one of them! It is a completely new learning process. I found myself becoming more tolerant, more understanding. I told people in my lab: I myself is a workholic, but you guys can do whatever you like. I beg them to be happy so they can produce. Of course, when you just started up, nobody wants to be your postdoc. or your student. But with time, things will get better if your reputation is known by more people. This year, I had 2 students signed to my lab.

HOW TO GET THERE AND TO STAY THERE Everything being said, being a PI or a "boss" is not bad after all. So, how can everyone get there. To be very honest, I do not think it is a job for everyone enev though everyone has an equal opportunity. There is no existing formula. It is difficult nowadays even for very bright American scholars, so it is much tougher for foreigners. It requires a good understnading of the american system in which the good communication is a must. Language tself is only a tool. It is critical to make sure you understand other people and people also understand you no matter whether you agree with each other. Working hard is helpful but working on the right project at the right time is probably even more important. Therefore any success always has some component of luck. The key is to learn when the opportunity knocks, you know how to catch it.

To keep a faculty job is getting more difficult than before. The competition in science is so fierce that any new idea will be out-of-dated in 3-5 years before you even get chance to renew your grant. Many faculties are chronically depressed. They have to find new ideas, shifting to new areas, doing more collaborations. Some did loose jobs (believe or not)!

ALTERNATIVES There are many opportunities in the United States. Besides the industrial jobs and returning to clinical work, there are other things we can do. It is not necessary, or it is impossible, for everyone
to find a high salary or high prestige job, rather it is important to have a peace of mind to make a living. I hope more alumni will contribute ideas on how we can find other opportunities instead of stucking inside a small ivory tower.

* * * * *

Editors: The writer, Lu, Shan, MD (MD77), PhD (90/ Uni.
of Massachusetts) is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and
Immunology/Virology University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
His research interest is DNA immunization, i.e., directly inoculating
antigen-expressing DNA plasmid into live animals to induce immune
responses. (E-mail: Shan.Lu @ banyan.ummed.edu)

* * * * *
B) Surviving in Today's Pharmaceutical Industry -- By Yue Lin (MD77)

I don't have much to say about this topic at this moment. But since I was invited by the Editors, I feel obligated to say something now. Here is some of my personal opinion/thoughts on surviving in today's pharmaceutical corporate world.

First of all, I don't think there is much difference between industrial and academic career life in terms of the element of success. Both takes HARD WORK, SOLID BACKGROUND and KNOWLEDGE of what you do, and the indispensable skills of CRITICAL THINKING, PRIORITIZING, PROBLEM SOLVING/DECISION MAKING, and? Oh, and a good portion of LUCK.

On a personal level, in today's industrial world, especially in the big corporate culture, you almost have to have good PEOPLE SKILLS in order to step up and become a good leader, otherwise the most you can get out of yourself is a low level manager. How to become a leader? I don't know (at least not yet)-it may have a lot to do with personal traits, work style, qualifications, and above all, communication skills/style! In my opinion, to be successful in the big corporate culture, you need to BE NATURAL and BE YOURSELF (don't pretend or follow blindly? And you don't have to smile when you don't feel like to). BE REASONABLE (but not necessarily be nice to everybody or be over-concerned). That leads to the point of BEING CONFIDENT, CRITICAL, AND ANALYTICAL (but don't be condescending, nasty, or become a show-off !). Finally, BE HONEST (with reservations when express), and TRUST YOUR OWN INSTINCT while BEING OPEN MINDED.

On a technical level, a good manager/leader should know how to motivate his/her staffs. In my opinion, loyalty, respect, and trust always come in two ways (I like to use the word "mutual"). To be successful in today's business world, you need to be BE SHREWD AND PRUDENT (as if you were an investor)--learn how to spot and solve problems, allocate resources (man power, capital, etc.), and set priorities. If you ask me about the element(s) that differ the most from academia, I would say that the PEOPLE SKILLS and POLITICS play seemingly critical roles in the industrial setting if your goal is to move up the corporate ladder. If I have to say something about dealing with industrial POLITICS, I'd say that my rule of thumb is, again, to be yourself--either be up-front and make your point, or take a back seat and shut up; never seriously and intentionally play it like a game (or like a fire)--it will not last, at least not with my kind of skills, style, and personality.

I don't know if the above-mentioned make any sense at all. It may seem to be mostly empty words to some alumni, but to me, it's my everyday life. And, for this same reason, I don't see much difference between academic and industrial P.I. or "boss" other than a different work environment because most of the elements I mentioned here apply also to LIFE in general, not necessarily career lives in academia or industry. This is all what I can think of at this moment, and it's only my personal opinion (you are entitled to disagree).

By the way, my typical work life can be briefly described as 5-6 meetings per week; no worries about grants or money, but always concerned with productivity, quality control (model validation, disease relevance, for example), and regulatory compliance (FDA, USDA, etc.). Unlike academia where you normally have to be very dedicated to a project which is most likely supported by a grant or two, I usually to try my best to kill a (potentially failed) project as early as possible so that I can shift my resources, time, and effort to other priorities and push a potential winner to the market ASAP.

* * * * *

Editors: The writer, Lin, Yue, MD (MD77), PhD (90/St. Louis Uni.)
is the Head of Large Animal Pharmacology, currently in charge of
Biotech Pharmacology, at Department of Pharmacology, Biotechnology
Division of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. (E-mail: ALLIN9798 @ aol.com)

* * * * *

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4. Letters from Alumni.
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a) From Ding, Xinsheng, (MD77)
(Editors: this is the edited version for shortness)

Dear ONMUAA alumni,

As an old fellow of MD77, I think many alumni know me. I took an offer and went back to work in our home hospital, the 1st Affiliated Hospital of NMU a few months ago. I don't think it's the best option to go back and work in China permanently for most of you and I won't encourge anyone to do so. But I do encourge everyone to make contribution, if possible, to NMU and its hospitals as follows:

To set up joint study and any kind of cooperation:
To provide your idea and suggestions;
To provide information and material if needed;
To give lectures during your trip to China;
To provide any kind of support ....

I select to go back China because I want to do something according to my own will and I have less difficulties than most of you. I don't want to tell you how busy I was after I went back and which problems and difficulties I delt with. I want to say that with the help and support of the hospital leaders everything is fine for me now.

As a director in charge of neurological research in Jiangsu Province Hospital, I welcome our alumni, particularly those who are working in the fields related to neurology or neuroscience, to support our research in China and contact with me. I will stay and work in University of Pennsylvania for couple months and will leave for Nanjing around the Chinese New Year's Day (Spring Festival).

When I went back to China in May, I missed the opportunity to apply grants from National Foundation of Nature and Science. But I got two grants from Province Foundation of Nature and Science. One is about genetic diagnosis and prenatal diagnosis of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, the other is about nerve regeneration. I want to apply for national grants next year. I am thinking of study about Alzheimer's disease and others, including neuroimmunology and molecularneurology. I hope anyone of my alumni may give me some suggestions and provide cooperation. I can invite you to visit China and to be an investigator in our project.

Editors: Ding, Xinsheng, (MD77), came to the US in 1989 as a Post-doc. in Columbia University (study on neuromuscular dis.) in 1889-1991 and a Post-doc. in Univ. of Pennsylvania (Dept. of Neurology) in 1991-93, and Research Asso. and Clinical Fellow (Dept. of Neurology, U. Penn Hospital) in 1993-97. In May, 1997, he went back to China. Tel: 215-662-3637 (O) 215-662-2665 (L) 610-284-4614 (H)

e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail in China: [email protected]
(Please don't send him e-mail to China before Feb. 98)
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5. Cyberspace news you can use.
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a) Another interesting website on Internet
(by Lu, Shan, MD77)

Lately there are several "yellow page" sites developed on internet. One of them is on Yahoo. The address is: "www.yahoo.com/search/people". At this site, you only need to enter the last and first name, then it can tell the phone number and address of those people matched with your request. You can also add city and/or state, then the match will be even more accurate. The problem is people have to list their name on their local telephone yellow pages. It is quite amazing when the match can be done in only a couble of seconds. This may be a useful tool to add on to our ONMUAA directory because our people move a lot.

O.K, now you can find the address of your old time lovers or enemies at a
finger's stroke!

b) Science Citation Index Webpage (Information exchange)
(Contributed by Ning Jin, NS80)

Science Citation Index is now available on the internet. You can now search the recent ten year leterature from the web page. The database is created and maintained by Institute for Scientific Information. The most important feature is that the database is updated weekly so you can keep up with the latest advancement in your area. The search is very easy. You can search by topic and/or author. It first displays the summary. If interested, you could also retrieve the abstract.

The web page address is: http://www.webofscience.com. Alternatively you can also access that page from our academic center in our leterature archive.

c) DIRECT EVOLUTION OF A FULL PROFESSOR
(author unknown; by Yongjian Liu, MD78)

Abstract:

Success in academia is hypothesized to require specific phenotypes. In order to understand how such unusual traits arise, we used human clones to identify the molecular events that occur during the transition from a graduate student to professor. A pool of graduate student clones was subjected to several rounds of random mutagenesis followed by selection on minimal money media in the absence of dental insurance. Students surviving this selection were further screened for the ability to work long hours with vending machine snacks as a sole carbon source; clones satisfying these requirements were dubbed "post-docs". In order to identify assistant professors from amongst the post-docs, this pool was further mutagenized, and screened for the ability to turn esoteric results into a 50 minute seminar. Finally, these assistant professors were evaluated for their potential to become full professors in two ways: first, they were screened for overproduction and surface display of stress proteins such as Hsp70. Assistant professors that displayed such proteins (so-called "stressed-out" mutants) were then fused to the M13 coat protein, displayed >on phages and passed over a friend and family members column, to identify those that were incapable of functional interactions. These were called full professors. Although these mutants arose independently, they shared striking phenotypes. These included the propensity to talk incessantly about their own research, the inability to accurately judge the time required to>complete bench work, and the belief that all their ideas constituted good thesis projects. The linkage of all these traits suggests that these phenotypes are coordinately regulated. Preliminary experiments have identified a putative global regulator. Studies are currently being conducted to determine if overexpression of this gene product in post-docs and grad students can speed up the grad student-full professor evolutionary process.

EDITORS COMMENTARY:

The present paper, titled "Direct Evolution of a Full Professor" is a fascinating document, well worth publication. However, the authors fail to note several topics sure to be of interest to the Journal's readers. For example, it is a well-documented phenomenon that transition to industry can occur at any point along the evolutionary pathway. The authors fail to comment on the possible mechanisms behind such versatility. Plasmid-borne resistance genes encoding a tropism for rich media have been postulated to fulfill this function. In support of this hypothesis, it may be noted that previous researchers who attempted to isolate this plasmid quickly underwent transition and never published their findings.