Two centres instrumental in sequencing the human genome are reinventing themselves. In doing so, they are creating new kinds of jobs and, perhaps, different career paths. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (formerly the Sanger Centre) and the Whitehead Institute are vying for talent by structuring advancement and creating scientific work beyond traditional investigator posts. And both offer renewable contracts, rather than exclusively tenure-track positions.
The Sanger is investing £300 million (US$431 million) to support research in proteomics and functional genomics, while continuing its sequencing work. The Wellcome Trust, which funds the institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, is providing an additional £65 million for information technology infrastructure.
In Cambridge, Massachussetts, the Whitehead Institute is in the early stages of planning a similar switch, perhaps splitting into two units — one that will continue to conduct sequencing and another that will work on post-genomic projects.
The Sanger Institute is competing with industry by offering payment above the Medical Research Council scale. This is similar to the strategy some US foundations have used to attract quality postdocs — and put pressure on the government to make its own stipends more competitive (see Naturejobs 3–5; 10 January 2002). As for contracts, Susan Lindquist, director of the Whitehead, believes that more research institutions will move towards using both kinds, giving investigators a choice of flexibility or security.
Finally, both centres anticipate bringing on board PhD biologists to run new facilities, such as microarray centres — like an astronomer running a telescope. Those people will be much more than "high-priced technicians", Lindquist says. And, if more institutes adopt this model, they will be much in demand.