 he Cleveland Clinic Foundation is well-represented in the
ISI
Essential Science Indicators Web product, with work
spanning several fields, including Clinical Medicine, Biology &
Biochemistry, Neuroscience & Behavior, and Molecular Biology &
Genetics. In the October 2001 update of ISI, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
was a new entrant in the field of Immunology; that is, their citations
in this field have increased to the extent that the institution is now
among the top 1% in this field. In this interview, Dr. Thomas
Hamilton, chairman of the Department of Immunology at the Cleveland
Clinic Foundation, discusses his department’s research as it relates
to his institution as a whole.
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How do you account for your institution’s dramatic increase in
the number of citations from the early to late 1990s?
The Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation has been
in a rapid growth phase that began in the mid-1980s and has continued
throughout the decade of the 90s. This growth has involved development
of basic laboratory research programs in molecular biology, cell
biology, cancer biology, neurosciences, biomedical engineering, and
immunology. The recruitment of new research programs has combined with
the continued growth and development of existing laboratories.
Bridging all of these programs has been achieved though a focus on the
mechanisms of intracellular signaling that regulate responses to
cytokines and growth factors that are important in regulating immunity
and inflammation.
Does this reflect a deliberate plan to enhance the institution’s
research effort in this field, or was this an unexpected or
serendipitous development?
Though expansion of the basic sciences was clearly deliberate, the
emphasis in cytokine signaling was a serendipitous result of several
key recruitments, chief amongst which was the appointment of George
Stark as the Institute Director in 1993.
Do teamwork and collaboration entail significant involvement of
your researchers with groups external to your institution?
Collaborative interactions with scientists at other institutions
are always key features of continued productivity in almost any
scientific field, and this was surely a contributing feature in our
development. No single interaction is clearly identifiable.
What role did external support and funding play in this area?
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation has provided very strong support
for the development of our research enterprise, as has philanthropy
within the Cleveland community. The majority of the laboratory work
from our Institute is supported by competitively awarded external
funding obtained from a variety of national organizations, principally
the National Institutes of Health.
What research fields or capabilities do you see as critical for the
future of your institution?
At the present time, major new initiatives linking basic sciences
with specific clinical research programs are underway. The Cleveland
Clinic Foundation provides a remarkable resource and opportunity to
translate new laboratory findings into practice in the clinic, and
achieving such interaction will be a major theme in the future.
What were the greatest challenges for your institution in
performing and presenting its work?
Building successful new research programs requires not only hard
work but also the vision to see what can be achieved. This vision has
been provided by the leadership of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation at
multiple levels and all of our accomplishments are dependent upon
this.
Thomas Hamilton, Ph.D.
Chairman, Department of Immunology
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, OH, USA
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