3690 | A. Amon Molecular Biology of the Cell A case for more curiosity-driven basic research

ABSTRACT Having been selected to be among the exquisitely talented scientists who won the Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award is a tremendous honor. I would like to take this opportunity to make the case for a conviction of mine that I think many will consider out-dated. I am convinced that we need more curiosity-driven basic research aimed at under-standing the principles governing life. The reasons are simple: 1) we need to learn more about the world around us; and 2) a robust and diverse basic research enterprise will bring ideas and approaches essential for developing new medicines and improving the lives of humankind. When I was a graduate student, curiosity-driven basic research ruled. Studying mating-type switching in budding yeast, for example, was exciting because it was an interesting problem: How can you make two different cells from a sin-gle cell in the absence of any external cues? We did not have to justify why it is important to stud