When the weather鈥檚 right, you can find any number of 黑料吃瓜资源 (CSHL) students, faculty, and staff around the gazebo on Bungtown Road. The spot鈥檚 popularity is undoubtedly owed to its excellent view of the harbor. But crowning the gazebo is an homage to something arguably just as important to CSHL as its inspiring surroundings鈥攁n adenovirus.
You may ask yourself, 鈥�What鈥檚 an adenovirus?鈥� Well, it’s one cause of the common cold. But that鈥檚 not what makes it interesting, nor why one sits atop the gazebo. For that we need to go back, back to the Laboratory of the late 鈥�70s and early 鈥�80s.
Just imagine: rock, disco, and new wave ruled the radio. Aviator glasses had entered the mainstream. The Beatles were never getting back together. And the National Institutes of Health鈥檚 鈥榃ar on Cancer鈥� was in full swing. That last part鈥檚 important, because adenovirus only gives humans the common cold. In mice, it causes cancer.
It鈥檚 unknown when adenovirus first arrived at CSHL. But the first samples used for research were brought by visiting scientist in 1972. By 1974, a group including CSHL鈥檚 Terri Grodziker and alumni and Joseph Sambrook had published the first of several studies on adenovirus hybrids. Their fundamental research sparked collaborations across the country aiming to expand adenovirus鈥� use as a model for studying cell division, with an eye toward potential cancer therapeutics.
But what about the gazebo? Around the same time the adenovirus was taking cancer research by storm, the Laboratory was deep into a major expansion project. This included new offices, lab renovations, on-campus housing, and a facility to finally solve CSHL鈥檚 then-perennial wastewater problems.
Completed in 1976, the water treatment plant was built into the hill beneath Bungtown Road. A portico sheathed in wooden shingles was constructed to cover the facility鈥檚 east-facing facade, topped by a brick patio that draws visitors in toward the gazebo, its built-in seating, and, of course, the fantastic view. The copper adenovirus, held aloft by an anthropomorphic wooden finial, was installed that same year.
In 1977, the humble adenovirus would earn its stripes for its key role in Richard Roberts and Phillip Sharp鈥檚 discovery of split genes and RNA splicing. Their work set the stage for the development of nusinersen (Spinraza), the first FDA-approved drug to treat spinal muscular atrophy, by CSHL鈥檚 Adrian Krainer in 2016. It also earned Roberts and Sharp the 1993 Nobel Prize.
But adenovirus鈥� scientific value didn鈥檛 end there. Hybrid adenoviruses played a key role in then-postgraduate-student Bruce Stillman鈥檚 early discoveries on the origins of DNA replication, presented at the . (Stillman is now CSHL President and CEO.) They would also see extensive use in CSHL鈥檚 landmark cancer studies throughout the 1980s. Today, they remain a valuable tool across numerous fields of research鈥攁s a mode of delivery in early COVID-19 vaccines being a recent example.
Oxidation aside, the little copper adenovirus is still going strong, too鈥攁 monument to its enormous impact on our understanding of cancer, genes, and the origins of life鈥� overlooking inner Cold Spring Harbor.
