The PI3K cancer administration of Grass Laboratory Program has evolved over

the years to include a Director and Associate Director, who oversee the daily operation of the laboratory, help Fellows find the appropriate resources, and facilitate contacts between fellows and resident and visiting researchers. Many companies generously provide cutting-edge loaner equipment that allows fellows to propose and conduct research that would be difficult to accomplish at their home institutions. With the growth of the interdisciplinary approaches to the nervous system, The Grass Foundation began supporting projects in neurophysiology, biophysics, integrative neurobiology, neuroethology, neuroanatomy, neuropharmacology, systems neuroscience, cellular and developmental neurobiology, and computational approaches to neural systems. Despite the evolution of the Grass Fellowship Program, one constant over the years has been the availability of the broader MBL community to help mentor and guide the fellows. It is during the Grass Fellowship Alpelisib that many fellows form their peer-networking group and where many fellows meet the leading scientists in their respective fields. The number of Grass Fellows now exceeds 600 and many have made significant contributions to neuroscience (Figure 2) in the 20th and 21st

centuries (a full listing can be found at: http://www.grassfoundation.org). All former Grass Fellows have developed over the years a lifelong connection to the MBL and a valuable network of colleagues and potential collaborators. Natural science is the quintessential expression of the human experience and has invaded and 17-DMAG (Alvespimycin) HCl transformed human life through the medium of industry (Marx, 1959). In the first decade of the 21st century, most industrialized nations realized the importance of science for maintaining their relative economical prevalence. These nations focused their investment in scientific research by initiating programs centered on commercially motivated technological innovation and by orienting biomedical research funding agencies toward disease-centered initiatives.

Thus, the funding for basic science has been dramatically reduced, challenging the very basic concepts of science itself. Far from the wonder of nature and the pursuit of knowledge that characterized science since the times of Humphry Davy (Holmes, 2008), contemporary science seems too focused on the potential commercial value of the data obtained. As a result of these policies, the funding for biomedical research has become more limited toward goal-oriented research rather than toward exploration (Fang and Casadevall, 2010). This has the effect of stifling innovation and transformative discovery yet represents a current research reality. Such focus on goal-oriented research represents, in addition, a serious challenge for the training of future neuroscientists.