Summer 2009

Training the Next Generation in Basic ScienceBY HEATHER ROCK WOODS

In 1982, immunologist Sherie Morrison, ’63, PhD ’66, returned to Stanford for a sabbatical in Professor Paul Berg’s biochemistry lab.

Big things were coming out of that lab—Berg himself had just won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the early development of recombinant DNA technolo-gy—and Morrison’s term there proved no exception.

Working with two Stanford colleagues, Leonard Herzenberg (now professor of genetics, emeritus) and Vernon Oi, ’76, PhD ’80, Morrison built on one of Berg’s technologies to create a way to mass-produce specific kinds of antibodies—the body’s means for finding dangerous cells and marking them for destruction.

Their patent for functional antibody technology is one of Stanford’s top royalty generators and the basis of medicines for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s dis-ease, respiratory illness in young children, and clot prevention.

“I went into this because of the fun of doing science. Every day there are new challenges and puzzles to solve,” says Morrison. Now a professor of microbi-ology, immunology, and molecular genetics at UCLA, she holds many patents and continues to genetically engineer antibodies to target cancer, deadly toxins, and fungal and viral infections. She adds, “It’s a tremendous bonus to see my work get translated into therapeutic benefit.”

To thank Berg and his wife, Millie, for their hospitality, and to show apprecia-tion for their Stanford educations, she and her husband, Donald Morrison, PhD ’65, recently established the Paul and Mildred Berg Graduate Fellowship. Their $500,000 gift, matched by the university, creates a $1 million endowment to maintain the fellowship for graduate students in biology.

During the fruitful sabbatical at Stanford, both of the Morrisons enjoyed the lab’s supportive environment and fun group of people. She did work that

proved especially valuable to her career, and he, now a professor in the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, reconnected with Stanford mentors and took and taught classes related to marketing science. The academic couple has managed to work at the same institutions since their graduate days on the Farm, and make a point of mentoring graduate students.

For Millie and Paul Berg, the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research, Emeritus, the greatest honor comes from the sentiment underlying the gift. “We are thrilled by Sherie’s feelings that her stay in my lab was so rewarding,” he says.

The gift is also eminently practical: According to Sherie Morrison, graduate students are fundamental to the discoveries that come out of a good research lab. Alongside faculty members, they run and analyze experiments, propose new questions, author scientific papers, and present results. By providing a secure and enduring source of graduate student support, the Berg Fellowship will help Stanford attract the best and brightest. It will also allow professors to allocate more of the money from prized federal grants directly to their research while still ensuring their hardworking students have the back-ing they deserve.

Berg shares Morrison’s deep commitment to graduate stu-dents. As he said in his 1980 Nobel lecture, “Those who have worked with students and experienced the discom-fort of their curiosity, the frustrations of their obstinacy, and the exhilaration of their growth know firsthand the magnitude of their contributions.” n

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Stanford Benefactor is a publication of the Office of Development n Contact: stanfordbenefactor@stanford.edu

Sherie Morrison, ’63, PhD ’66, and Donald Morrison, PhD ’65. PHOTO: Courtesy of the Morrisons

ABOVE: Nobel Prize–winning chemist Paul Berg in front of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine, which he helped to found. PHOTO: Steve Fisch