washington

John Sedat, a biochemistry professor at the University of California, San Francisco, knows all about working closely with colleagues.

In his 950-square-foot lab there reside, in addition to Sedat, five graduate students, two postdocs, a technician, two software developers, a support staffer, 17 computers, three three-dimensional optical microscopes and three six-foot by two-foot vats of liquid nitrogen, among other supplies and equipment.

“There isn't a lot of room for individual people,” says Sedat. “And there's even less room for equipment. That is a big constraint for our work.” Sedat studies in three dimensions the structure and function of the cell nucleus inDrosophila .

Sedat says that Tom Harkin's Senate bill, which would give the NIH funds for lab construction and renovation, “seems like a good idea” (seeabove).

Despite the overcrowding, Sedat feels that, if a choice has to be made, grants for individual scientists should take precedence over infrastructure needs.

But Sanford Miller, of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, says his reaction to the bill is an unqualified “hallelujah”.

Miller's institution is laying out $19 million — $1 million of it from the NIH — for a new, three-storey lab building.

The local community gave generous support, he says. “But how many times can you go back to them on something like that?” If the NIH were to pump in much more money, says Miller, “this could be the start of something fantastic”.