"Why in the world would anybody want to be a research scientist?" asks Doug Eaton, a professor of physiology and director of the Center for Cell and Molecular Signaling.

The answer, quite simply and perhaps unexpectedly, is because it is fun, he says.

"It's fun to do experiments and meet the challenge of figuring out how to design experiments so that you receive an unequivocal answer. It's fun to find out new information that nobody's known anything about."

He also mentions the satisfaction of sharing intellectual experiences with people from different backgrounds.

For instance, the researchers associated with the Center for Cell and Molecular Signaling are evenly divided,half are PhDs and half are MDs, but more importantly their training is quite varied: from engineers and chemists at Georgia Tech to biologists and clinical researchers at Emory and the Atlanta VA Medical Center. The combination helps translate fundamental science from the lab bench to the clinic bedside. For example, one morning a few months ago, Eaton was sitting down with a pediatrician. The two men come from completely different research backgrounds. The pediatrician specializes in neonatology-he takes care of breathing problems in sick, premature infants. For his part, Eaton looks at life on a completely different level-one molecule at a time. He's interested in how molecules in a cell carry signals that eventually lead to certain changes being made within the cell structure.

After talking for a while, Eaton started to see a few things that he could do in his research that might have a real impact on premature babies. And the neonatologist began to understand why the basic science behind cell signaling might lead to some interesting pharmacological interventions that could improve life for unhealthy infants.

As Eaton says, "If we can talk to one another, we can do great things together."

Before the center was founded six years ago, Emory was already strong in the cellular signaling area, but the expertise was scattered all over campus. "It was an area in which Emory really ought to be standing head and shoulders over everybody else," says Eaton, "but there was no focal point for allowing us to say, 'Here we are. We're good at this.' "

Nowadays this highly regarded center-among the top five of its kind in the U.S.-brings together many researchers (except those specializing in cancer) to study a subject that has a tremendous impact on conditions, including:

- kidney disease and hypertension
- diabetes
- lung injury, premature infants, and cystic fibrosis

Another positive benefit of having researchers gathered in one center is that it makes it possible to receive more grants for programmatic research. Emory does quite well at so-called investigator-initiated grants, or, one grant for one investigator. In fact, it does better at that than institutions such as Harvard. But with the center's resources and successful track record, researchers can develop programs together in support of applying new technology to problems of health care.

During the last twenty to thirty years, the research environment has changed dramatically. Emory always has been well known for its basic science programs in traditional departments such as physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology. What has changed is the growing presence of clinical work in research programs. Eaton sees this as a positive change. "That's where the real action is-in the interface between clinical scientists and basic scientists."

FYI

Douglas Eaton is Distinguished Professor and Deputy Chairman of Physiology. He is also director of the Center for Cell and Molecular Signaling. The research mission of the Center for Cell and Molecular Signaling is to investigate cellular signaling or cellular signal transduction. This is the process by which cells recognize external events and respond to the events with appropriate changes within the cell.