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Janelia Research Campus

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Janelia Research Campus is a scientific research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that opened in October 2006.[1] The campus is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the town of Ashburn. It is known for its scientific research and modern architecture. The current executive director of the laboratory is Nelson Spruston[2], who is also a vice-president of HHMI. He succeeded Ronald Vale in 2024, who in turn succeeded the initial director Gerald M. Rubin in 2020.[3] The campus was known as "Janelia Farm Research Campus" until 2014.[4]

Janelia Research Campus
Updated Janelia Logo.png
EstablishedSeptember 6, 2006 (2006-09-06)
Research typeneurobiology
Budget$300 million
DirectorRonald Vale
Staff424
LocationAshburn, Virginia
Campus689 acres (2.79 km2)
Operating agency
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Eric Betzig
Websitewww.janelia.org

Research

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Most HHMI-funded research supports investigators working at their home institutions.[5] However, some interdisciplinary problems are difficult to address in existing research settings, and Janelia was built as a separate institution to address such problems in neurobiology.[6] As of November 2011, it had 424 employees and room for 150 more.[7] They specifically address the identification of general principles governing information processing by neuronal circuits, and the development of imaging technologies and computational methods for image analysis. In 2017, it announced a new research area, mechanistic cognitive neuroscience.[8]

At any given time, Janelia supports several large collaborative projects to address needs for data and techniques of interest to a wide scientific community.[6][9] As of 2021, these included the development of large-scale neuroanatomical data for Drosophila (at the light and electron microscopy levels), a corresponding light level map of the mouse brain, improving the technology of genetically coded fluorescent sensors, and a number of smaller projects. Results include much improved fluorescent calcium sensors and the first entire full-brain image of Drosophila with neuronal resolution.[10][11]

The center was designed to emulate the unconstrained and collaborative environments at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Cambridge's Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Researchers are on six-year contracts and fully internally funded, independent of traditional research grant funding.[12]

Gerald M. Rubin was the first executive director of Janelia, and saw it from concept through construction to operation. Ronald Vale took over as director in early 2020, followed by Nelson Spruston in 2024. There are roughly fifty research laboratories headed by senior researchers including Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Gerry Rubin, and Eric Betzig.[13] Previous lab heads include Karel Svoboda, Barry Dickson, Sean Eddy, Tamir Gonen, Lynn Riddiford, James W. Truman, and Robert Tjian.

Campus

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The original Janelia Farm house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places,[14][15] and the property was purchased by HHMI from the Dutch software maker Baan Companies in December 2000.[16] The 281 acres (1.14 km2) main campus features a 900-foot (270 m) long, arc-shaped laboratory known as the Landscape Building.[17] The building, designed by Rafael Viñoly, 270 feet (82 m) wide at the ground floor, is built into a hill and designed to be the primary research facility. A 96 room hotel for conference attendees overlooks a pond and connects to the Landscape Building via a tunnel under Helix drive. Selden Island, a 408 acres (1.65 km2) former sod farm in the Potomac River was added to the campus in 2004 and is popular amongst staff for jogging and recreation.[18][19]

Many employees live on campus. There are three apartment buildings totaling 240 units—34 single-family townhouses and 21 studio apartments providing housing for more than a quarter of the staff.[20][19] Other employees commute to Arlington on an HHMI provided shuttle bus.[21] There are extensive fitness facilities, including a yoga studio, bouldering gym, tennis courts, and a soccer field.[21][22][23]

Site and landscape design were completed by Dewberry in 2006 and include over four acres of green roof meadow plantings which blend the building into the surrounding site. In 2006, the institute hired landscape architecture firm Lewis Scully Gionet, Inc., to redo some of the previous landscape work which was completed in fall 2008 (and won an Honor Award from the Maryland and Potomac chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects). This work includes an architectural water feature, expanded path network, and siting of multiple pieces of artwork, as well as comprehensive planting additions. Additional campus-wide landscape improvement designed by LSG Landscape Architecture followed up until now.

Research Facilities

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Computational infrastructure

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The storage and computational requirements of modern neuroscience can be extremely demanding. Some two-photon microscopes can generate data at over 5 GB/s.[24] Electron microscopy connectomics can be especially demanding. The FlyEM dataset alone is a 400 TB, 34431 x 39743 x 41407 64-bit image.[25] The analysis of a similar dataset took nearly 7000 GPU hours.[26]

Computational infrastructure available to researchers at Janelia includes a high performance 7000 core cluster, 5 petabytes of storage and an off-site data center where data is backed up nightly.[27]

Animal facilities

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An accredited vivarium houses laboratory animals including zebrafish, mice, and rats. Support staff assist with routine care, breeding, and surgeries. [28] Routine care is aided by automation. Several fly flipping robots help maintain Drosophila stocks by transferring them to vials of fresh food.[29][30] Two robot arms aid in the sanitation of mouse cages. One arm picks dirty cages from a stack and inserts them into an autoclave, the other removes sanitized cages and stacks them.[31]

Advanced Imaging Center

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Scientists from around the world can apply to run their experiments on Janelia developed microscopes at the Advanced Imaging Center.[32]

Community involvement

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Together with the Loudoun Academy of Science,[33] HHMI donates approximately $1 million annually to support science education throughout Loudoun County Public Schools.[34][35] Janelia also hosts a quarterly lecture series for members of the public.[36]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Carey, Mac (February 9, 2011). "Brave New World". Virginia Living. Cape Fear Publishing. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  2. ^ "Janelia Names Nelson Spruston Its Third Executive Director".
  3. ^ "Ron Vale Named Next Executive Director of Janelia Research Campus and HHMI Vice President".
  4. ^ "History". Janelia Research Campus. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  5. ^ "About HHMI: Introduction".
  6. ^ a b "Janelia's Philosophy".
  7. ^ M. Mitchell Waldrop (17 November 2011). "Research at Janelia: Life on the farm. Five years in, has a lofty experiment in interdisciplinary research paid off". Nature. 479 (7373): 284–286. doi:10.1038/479284a. PMID 22094670.
  8. ^ "What is Mechanistic Cognitive Neuroscience? | Janelia Research Campus". www.janelia.org. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  9. ^ "Project Teams - Janelia Research Campus". www.janelia.org. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  10. ^ "In a 'tour de force,' researchers image an entire fly brain in minute detail". Science | AAAS. 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  11. ^ Zheng, Zhihao; Lauritzen, J. Scott; Perlman, Eric; Robinson, Camenzind G.; Nichols, Matthew; Milkie, Daniel; Torrens, Omar; Price, John; Fisher, Corey B. (2018-07-19). "A Complete Electron Microscopy Volume of the Brain of Adult Drosophila melanogaster". Cell. 174 (3): 730–743.e22. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.06.019. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 6063995. PMID 30033368.
  12. ^ Yudhijit Bhattacharjee (8 December 2006). "Neurobiology on the Farm". Science. 314 (5805): 1530–1532. doi:10.1126/science.314.5805.1530. PMID 17158300. S2CID 109680345.
  13. ^ "Janelia.org".
  14. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  15. ^ "Howard Hughes Medical Institute Breaks Ground For Janelia Farm Research Campus". Howard Hughes Medical Institute. May 5, 2003. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  16. ^ "Janelia Farm". HHMI Bulletin. 14 (3). Howard Hughes Medical Institute: 10–15. July 2001. Archived from the original on 2012-07-04. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  17. ^ "Campus project designed to inspire ground-breaking science" (PDF). R&D Magazine. 13 November 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03.
  18. ^ "Biomedical institute makes $4.5M Loudoun land grab". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  19. ^ a b Rubin, Gerald; O'Shea, Erin (Feb 7, 2019). "Point of View: Looking back and looking forward at Janelia". eLife. 8: e44826. doi:10.7554/eLife.44826. PMC 6374070. PMID 30730292.
  20. ^ "On Campus Housing". Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  21. ^ a b "Campus Amenities". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  22. ^ Branson, Kristin [@KristinMBranson] (2022-03-07). "New Janelia bouldering gym! https://t.co/aG09Ubny1x" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2022-12-21 – via Twitter.
  23. ^ "Janelia Recreation Area". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  24. ^ "Kilohertz frame-rate tomographic 2-photon microscope". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  25. ^ "FlyEM Hemibrain Release". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  26. ^ Januszewski, Michał; Kornfeld, Jörgen; Li, Peter H.; Pope, Art; Blakely, Tim; Lindsey, Larry; Maitin-Shepard, Jeremy; Tyka, Mike; Denk, Winfried; Jain, Viren (2018-06-16). "High-precision automated reconstruction of neurons with flood-filling networks" (PDF). Nature Methods. 15 (8): 605–610. doi:10.1038/s41592-018-0049-4. PMID 30013046. S2CID 49863171.
  27. ^ "Support Teams / Scientific Computing Systems". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  28. ^ "Support Teams / Vivarium". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  29. ^ "Support Teams / Drosophila Resources". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  30. ^ HHMI | Janelia [@HHMIJanelia] (2015-09-24). "That's 1 of our 3 fly flipping robots. They can change 2,700-3,600 stocks per day and email us if there's a problem! https://t.co/7Zf7WyRb4g" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2022-12-21 – via Twitter.
  31. ^ Segar, Adrian [@ASegar] (2014-06-10). "Mouse cage cleaning robot! (seen on tour of Janelia Farm Research Campus) http://t.co/kigM78uRtu" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2022-12-21 – via Twitter.
  32. ^ "Open Science / Advanced Imaging Center". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  33. ^ Michael Alison Chandler (30 May 2014). "Loudoun County's Academy of Science showcases teens' first forays into research". Washington Post.
  34. ^ "Loudoun County Schools, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Announce Innovative Science Education Partnership - HHMI.org". HHMI.org. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  35. ^ "Janelia in the Community - Janelia Research Campus". www.janelia.org. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  36. ^ "Dialogues of Discovery - Janelia Research Campus". www.janelia.org. Retrieved 24 January 2018.

Further reading

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  • Gerald M. Rubin: Establishing a new Research Institute: The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus. in: Perspectives of Research - Identification and Implementation of Research Topics by Organizations - Ringberg-Symposium 2006 (Max-Planck-Forum 7) Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Hrsg.), München 2007, ISSN 1438-8715

39°04′18″N 77°27′53″W / 39.0716°N 77.4648°W / 39.0716; -77.4648

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