Mystery No More: Howard Hughes’ Legacy Advances Science

Originally broadcast April 10, 2025

Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes founded his eponymous Medical Institute over 70 years ago devoted to “unlocking the fundamentals of biology and building an open, inclusive future for science.”

Some say Howard Hughes Medical Institute is bringing its founder’s vision into the future with its one-of-a-kind Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. On this 281-acre parcel of land, integrated teams of lab scientists and tool-builders pursue a small number of scientific questions with potential for transformative impact. To drive science forward, they share their methods, results, and tools with the scientific community.

Nelson Spruston, Ph.D., the executive director at HHMI’s Janelia research campus, also tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter about AI@HHMI, its new $500 million initiative to embed AI systems throughout every stage of the scientific process.

Spruston says, “Our approach is to identify people who have a very strong track record of making important discoveries in biomedical research and letting them pursue their best ideas without asking for our permission. What we’re trying to do at HHMI is to use the deep bench of talent … to come up with ideas for problems [and address] long-standing open questions in the biological sciences.”

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