CSHL’s Bruce Stillman discusses double helix dinner, aging study, science funding

By Daniel Dunaief

The Oscars could learn a thing or two from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The facility, which conducts research in cancer, neuroscience, genomics, quantitative biology and plant biology, hosted its 19th annual Double Helix Award Dinner on Nov. 14.

Held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and emceed by CBS journalist Lesley Stahl, the dinner, so named for the twisting ladder structure of the genetic material DNA, raised $7 million while honoring Nobel Prize winner Katalin Karikó, and Daniel and Alisa Doctoroff, a husband and wife team who are leaders of Target ALS.

Bruce Stillman, CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, recently discussed the awards dinner, an innovative and potentially revolutionary study on aging, science funding, and a host of other topics in an exclusive interview.

The honorees at this year’s dinner were “really fantastic,” Stillman said.

Originally from Hungary, Karikó thrived in work that helped lead to BioNTech and Pfizer’s work using messenger RNA to create a vaccine for COVID-19 despite setbacks including four demotions while a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her experience shows how “a scientist can do Nobel prize winning research despite adversity,” Stillman said. She had an “idea she wanted to stick with.”

Through Target ALS, the Doctoroffs have helped generate progress in research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Daniel Doctoroff, who has ALS, had been Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding and CEO and president of Bloomberg LP.

The dinner has raised over $67 million since its inception and has honored scientists and public figures, including the late boxer and inaugural winner Muhammad Ali, baseball Hall of Fame right fielder Reggie Jackson and Nobel Prize winner and co-discoverer of gene editing tool CRISPR Jennifer Doudna.

As a part of the celebration, the lab produces videos of the honorees, who have made significant contributions to philanthropy or to research or who have been advocates for health.

A week after the dinner, Stillman had written a letter to potential honorees for next year.

“It’s a lot of work to do this properly,” said Stillman. “We have a time limit on the evening. We want everyone out by 9:30 p.m. We timed this whole thing down to the minute and it worked out very well.”

An important aging discovery

While the lab produced a large volume of research studies that could have implications in a range of fields during the year, Stillman highlighted the work of Corina Amor Vegas as being “probably the most impactful down the road.”

Amor Vegas used a technology developed to treat cancer to address the effects of aging.

She produced chimeric antigen receptors on the surface of the immune system’s T cells to attack senescent cells, which have aged and are not functional but could otherwise cause aging related problems such as diseases.

In a mouse model, Amor Vegas found that treating these aging mice with modified forms of their own T cells, through car-T immunotherapy, improved metabolic dysfunction and exercise capacity. Indeed, even a single treatment was enough to provide long term benefits for these mice.

The work attracted considerable venture capital interest and the lab is in discussions about how to pursue a business approach that taps into the potential use of this discovery.

As for businesses, the lab has a number of companies that are “under the radar screen” but that will have an impact in their fields.

Professor Partha Mitra started a company called Clarapath that will make “a major splash” with its automatic slides for pathology, Stillman said. A machine can do the work automatically that is otherwise labor intensive.

Down the road, scientists could apply artificial intelligence to analyze the samples. The laboratory has several faculty that are doing machine learning or AI in their research in areas such as neuroscience or genetics.

Through a neuro-AI scholars program, CSHL brings in people who have had a high level of training in computer science related to machine learning. The scholars come to CSHL for one or two years, where they work in a neuroscience lab.

Meetings

Stillman was pleased with the meetings on site this year, including one on epigenetics and CRISPR.

At the end of May in 2025, CSHL plans to have a symposium called Senescence and Aging.

The lab has invited scientists to speak from Germany, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom as well as from Harvard, Brown and Yale. Locally, Amor Vegas, Assistant Professor Semir Beyaz and Professor Lloyd Trotman have also received invitations to share their work.

Stillman anticipates the publication of compelling findings from CSHL next year, including in autism.

At the same time, the lab is building a new Neuroscience Research Complex that should be finished in 2026. The 36,347 square-foot facility will include three modern buildings that focus on neurodegenerative diseases, brain-body physiology and quantitative biology and NeuroAI.

The construction has been going “very well,” Stillman said.

Science and politics

Amid talk of a rationalization of the research budget next year when the former and future president Donald Trump takes office, Stillman cautioned against a heightened focus on translational studies.

“If we knew what basic science would be translational, we would be doing it,” Stillman said. “If you go back and look at fundamental discoveries of how a disease can be cured, like Spinraza, people would have said, ‘Don’t study this or that.’”

Professor Adrian Krainer developed the drug Spinraza at CSHL, which is an effective treatment for an otherwise debilitating childhood disease called spinal muscular atrophy.

The development of CRISPR came from a study of bacteria that grow in a marine environment.

If Trump’s administrators think they can predict that every dollar will be productive, “they are nuts,” Stillman said. “We should have a discussion before they start pronouncing what should be done.”

Converting the National Institutes of Health into a directed translational research institute will push down American competitiveness.

China is planning to spend large sums of money in basic research. If the United States cuts back in these areas, this is a “recipe for the country to become a second class citizen to those that are “investing in basic science.”

The Human Genome Project cost $3 billion over 25 years. The returns exceed $1 trillion, Stillman said.

“That’s an enormous payoff,” he added. 

Despite concerns and a watchful eye on research funding, Stillman shared a positive outlook.

“I’m not pessimistic about the future,” he said. “The United States economy is very strong.”