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CSHL Press

Officially established in 1988, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press has evolved from a small offshoot of the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), located in Long Island, New York, into an international publishing firm that produces journals, books, and a variety of electronic and online media. Publishing at CSHL began in 1933 as a result of the desire to circulate the many breakthroughs announced at the Lab’s annual Symposia. Inspired by the director from 1968-1987, James D. Watson, today the Press disseminates the newest scientific information available in order to further the advance of scientific knowledge.

The Press Today

CSHL Press publishes monographs, technical manuals, handbooks, review volumes, conference proceedings, scholarly journals, and videotapes. These publications examine important topics in molecular biology, genetics, development, virology, neurobiology, immunology, and cancer biology. The Press also has a line of children's books focused on relevant scientific topics and written in an accessible style children can appreciate.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is now located in Woodbury, New York, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's sister campus, and houses offices in San Diego, California and Oxfordshire, England.

Revenue from sales of CSHL Press publications is used solely in support of research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The Press funds upwards of 20% of the Lab’s annual budget.

Publications

Books

• The Banbury Reports. 1978-1991.

In 1976, the financial state of the Laboratory received a most significant boost with gifts by Charles Robertson, a philanthropist who had previously donated funds to Princeton University. The considerable endowment received was used for research, and Robertson’s estate in Lloyd Harbor, New York was transformed into the Banbury Center for small meetings.

The Banbury Reports, conceived by Watson, are a combination of the presentations and the edited transcripts of the discussions held at the Banbury conferences. Begun in 1978, these conferences focused on the risks that multitudinous agents in the natural or man-made environment pose to human beings’ genetic material. However, after Jan Witkowski became the Center’s Executive Director in 1987, the conferences broadened their scope in topic to explore the possible genetic causes of cancer. They often tackle relevant and controversial topics in science in an effort to arm the public with the factual data behind the controversy, thus allowing them to make informed decisions.

• Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. 1933-.

The Symposia is designed for biologists in related disciplines – biochemists, biophysicists, geneticists, microbiologists, and physiologists – to come together each year for a cross-fertilization of ideas on a single topic. The papers presented at these meetings make up the Symposium proceeding volumes.

• Monograph series. 1970-.

In the 1970s and 1980s, under James Watson's leadership, a series of books emerged which synthesized research on a specific topic in incredible depth and detail. Watson himself tapped the key contributors within an established field of molecular biology, many of whom had already discussed the particular topic at a Symposium, to be editors for the monographs, ensuring the books’ validity and relevance. The series was among the first reference volumes for the burgeoning field of molecular biology.

Children's Books

• Double Talking Helix Blues. By Joel and Ira Herskowitz, illustrated by Judy Cuddihy. 1994.

Double Talking Helix Blues is a book and audio tape presentation on the structure and function of DNA. Through song, text, and illustration, young readers are introduced to concepts of cells and molecules, reproduction at the molecular level, and DNA and its structure.

• Enjoy Your Cells Series. By Fran Balkwill, Illustrated by Mic Rolph. 2002.

The Enjoy Your Cells Series is a unique combination of simple but scientifically accurate commentary and exuberantly colorful graphics which introduce young readers to the hidden world of cells, proteins, and DNA.

• • Enjoy Your Cells. Series 1.
  • Germ Zappers. Series 2.
  • Have A Nice D.N.A. Series 3.
  • Gene Machines. Series 4.

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• You, Me, and HIV. By Fran Balkwill and Mic Rolph. 2005.

Over 5 million people in South Africa are living with HIV, acquired most often through sexual intercourse. Targeted at South Africa’s youth (in grade levels 7-9), You, Me, and HIV educates these young people about the risk of infection and how to avoid it altogether. The book is partnered with an educator’s guide and two instructional posters that supplement the information found within the book. All three items are distributed free of charge as part of a broadly based educational initiative in nearly one hundred schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Free State and the Eastern Cape. Groups of teachers and “master educators” in each province are being trained to use the materials and pass on their knowledge to students and other teachers.

The first publication of this project was the book Staying Alive: Fighting HIV/AIDS, published in 2002. 19,000 copies were printed and distributed free of charge in South Africa, with funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Oxford University, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 2003, the project received major grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This has permitted the evaluation and revision of the first publication, the printing and distribution of You, Me, and HIV and its associated materials in large numbers, and the launch of the educational intervention in schools. UNICEF SOUTH AFRICA is funding the training and distribution costs in three of the four provinces.

Electronic Media

• Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

CSH Protocols is an interactive source of new and classic research techniques. It is an online database of the biomedical research techniques used for decades at the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Its coverage includes cell and molecular biology, genetics, bioinformatics, protein science, and imaging.

Journals

This stylistic schematic diagram shows a gene in relation to the double helix structure of DNA and to a chromosome (right).

• Genes & Development. Ed. Terri Grodzicker. Launched in 1987.

Originally intended to focus on the molecular analysis of embryonic development, today the journal publishes high-quality research papers of broad general interest and biological significance in the areas of molecular biology, molecular genetics, and other related fields. Genes & Development is published in association with The Genetics Society, one of the oldest “learned societies” devoted to genetics in the world.

• Genome Research. Ed. Hillary E. Sussman. Launched in 1995.

Genome Research is an international, continuously published, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on research providing novel insights into the genome biology of all organisms and advances in genomic medicine. The journal also features gene discoveries and reports of cutting-edge computational biology and high-throughput methodologies. New data in these areas are published as research papers in the form of articles and letters, or methods and resource reports which provide novel information on technologies or tools.

• Learning & Memory. Ed. John H. Byrne. Launched in 1994.

Learning & Memory, is the first journal of its kind to consolidate interdisciplinary research in order to create a comprehensive account of the neurobiology of learning and memory. The journal consists of high-quality, original research papers in all areas of learning and memory, including: behavior cognition, computation, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, and cell and molecular biology.

• Protein Science. Ed. Brian W. Matthews.

Protein Science serves as an international forum for publishing original research papers and reviews on proteins in the broadest sense. The Journal aims to unify the field of protein science by cutting across established disciplinary lines and focusing on “protein-centered” science, encompassing the structure, function, and biochemical significance of proteins; their role in molecular and cell biology, genetics, and evolution; and their regulation and mechanisms of action. This journal is published by CSHL Press in association with The Protein Society, an international society devoted to furthering research and development in protein science.

• RNA. Ed. Timothy W. Nilsen.

RNA serves as an international forum for publishing original reports and articles on RNA research. The journal aims to cut across established disciplinary lines and focus on "RNA-centered" science. It is a monthly journal which provides rapid publication of significant original research in all areas of RNA structure and function in eukaryotic, prokaryotic, and viral systems. RNA is published by CSHL Press for The RNA Society, an international society established in 1993 to facilitate sharing and dissemination of experimental results and emerging concepts in RNA.

Manuals

• Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual. By Ed Harlow and David Lane. 1988.

A manual dedicated to de-mystifying immunological methodology by providing clear step-by-step protocols useful to the non-specialist.

• Cells: A Laboratory Manual. Edited by Robert D. Goldman, Leslie A. Leinwand, and David L. Spector. 1998.

Cells is an authoritative text which describes the theory and practice of cell biology techniques through accessible and precise protocols.

• Experiments in Molecular Genetics. Jeffrey Miller. 1972.

The first of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s published manuals, Experiments explained the then brand-new techniques for gene selection.

• Lab Essentials Series. A series of handbooks meant to be used as personal, practical reference sources in the Laboratory.
  • At the Bench. By Kathy Barker. 1998, updated in 2005.

At the Bench is a unique, practical handbook for living and working in the laboratory. It combines practical advice, moral support, and social etiquette with assume-nothing, step-by-step instructions for basic but vital laboratory procedures.

• • At the Helm. By Kathy Barker. 2002.

At the Helm provides a guide for newly appointed leaders of research teams and those who aspire to that role. It offers advice on how to recruit, motivate, and lead a research team, manage personnel and institutional responsibilities, and compete for funding while maintaining the outstanding scientific record that got them their position in the first place.

• Molecular Cloning. Tom Maniatis, Ed Fritsch, and Joe Sambrook. 1982.

This manual was a landmark in recombinant DNA technology, selling over 100,000 copies in its two editions.

Textbooks

• Evolution. Ed. Nicholas H. Barton, Derek E.G. Briggs, Jonathan A. Eisen, David B. Goldstein, and Nipam H. Patel.2007.

Designed for use in an undergraduate course on evolution, this textbook integrates molecular biology, genomics, and human genetics with more traditional studies of evolutionary processes.

• DNA Science. David A. Micklos and Greg A. Freyer. 2003.

A successful textbook (over 50,000 copies sold), DNA Science is a highly illustrated, narrative text combined with easy–to–use, reliable laboratory protocols. It contains a fully up–to–date collection of 12 rigorously tested and reliable lab experiments, developed at the internationally renowned Dolan DNA Learning Center of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which cover basic techniques of gene isolation and analysis and culminate in the construction and cloning of a recombinant DNA molecule. The book is meant for use in an advanced high school or introductory undergraduate course.

History

Humble Beginnings: 1890-1924

Charles B. Davenport at a 1921 eugenics conference.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory began life as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences’ Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor in 1890. The Bio Lab acted as a summer training facility for biology teachers.

In 1898, Charles Davenport, an instructor of evolutionary studies at Harvard University, became the Director of the Bio Lab’s summer program. Davenport persuaded the Carnegie Institute of Washington (CIW) to fund a center for year-round scientific research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory while the Bio Lab remained for summer work. In 1904, the Station for Experimental Evolution was founded (renamed the CIW Department of Genetics in 1921), and Davenport became director of both institutions. Davenport described the Station’s purpose at its dedication ceremony:

We do not celebrate here the completion of a building, we are dedicating no pile of bricks and lumber - rather, this day marks the coming together for the first time of the resident staff for their joint work, and we dedicate this bit of real earth, its sprouting plants and its breeding animals, here and now to the study of the laws of the evolution of organic beings.

Expansion and Global Interaction: 1924-1940

In 1924, the Brooklyn Institute decided to discontinue its research at CSH. In response, a local group of interested neighbors created the Long Island Biological Association (LIBA) and assumed responsibility for the Bio Lab.

The first director of the Bio Lab under LIBA was the young Reginald Harris, a summer researcher at the Lab since 1918 and Davenport’s son-in-law since 1922. Under Harris, the Bio Lab became a center for year-round research on quantitative biology.

Harris proved to be an excellent fundraiser, accruing donations from such wealthy patrons as Louis Tiffany, William K. Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Mr. & Mrs. Marshall Field. The Fields even hosted an outdoor circus party in 1932 to raise funds for LIBA. Those in attendance included George Gershwin and Fred Astaire.

Harris wanted to create a multi-disciplinary meeting at CSHL where the finest minds in chemistry, biology, and physics could all discuss a broad topic of mutual interest and importance. The goal was to stimulate new ideas, inspire collaborations, and synthesize information –allowing the scientists to depart with a more profound understanding of the issue at hand. In the summer of 1933, CSHL hosted scientists from all over the world in what became the first annual Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. The accommodations were meager (tents erected on the grounds of the Lab), but the interaction between the scientists and the proceeding diffusion of knowledge proved wildly successful.

The merit of Harris' idea was apparent, and the Rockefeller Foundation began long-term support of the Symposium the following year. The Cold Spring Harbor Symposium has since continued annually except for a three-year hiatus during World War II, drawing over 10,000 participants and 70 Nobel laureates.

Harris wanted to circulate the groundbreaking information shared at the Symposia and decided to publish the papers contributed by its participating members. The publication of the annual Symposia proved to be a massive undertaking for Harris. Due in part to the exhausting work required of him, the young Harris died in 1936. His death was a huge blow to the Lab; despite various successors, the Lab was forced to cease year-round research in 1940.

The Age of Bacteriophage: 1940-1953

During WWII, the government required scientists from both Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory institutions to work together to concentrate their efforts on research for the war.

In 1941, Milislav Demerec, a scientist who had first come to Cold Spring Harbor as a staff investigator in 1923, assumed directorship of both the Biological Laboratory and the Department of Genetics. During his tenure, Cold Spring Harbor became one of the major centers for genetic studies using microorganisms. Demerec chose genetics as the topic for several groundbreaking Symposia between 1941 and 1953, and the Symposia volumes became the original literature for the burgeoning field of molecular biology.

Demerec appointed Barbara McClintock to the Carnegie staff in 1942. McClintock came to Cold Spring Harbor with established credentials as a founder of the field of cytogenetics, which relates chromosome structure to classical genetic analysis. In 1931, she and Harriet Creighton of Wellesley College elucidated the physical mechanism of crossing over.

McClintock's study of corn variegation patterns led her to develop the theory of "jumping genes." McClintock first presented her fully-elaborated theory of transposition at the 1951 Symposium on Genes and Mutations. Transposable elements were later found in other organisms and McClintock won a Nobel Prize for her research in 1983. She continued to work at Cold Spring Harbor until her death in 1992.

After World War II, many scientists desired a return to a more humanitarian science, a science that researched the basis of life. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory became a cradle for molecular biology, and scientists became intensely involved in the study of the smallest known units of life – bacteriophages (also known as phages, a group of tiny viruses that infect bacteria and then hijack the host cell's metabolic machinery to reproduce a new generation of offspring).

The Phage Group began to coalesce in the summer of 1941, when Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria met at Cold Spring Harbor to work out key techniques for studying the phage reproductive cycle. The genetic interaction between bacteria and bacteriophages provided an ideal model system in which to study the chemical nature of the gene. In 1945, Delbrück and Luria initiated the Phage Course that trained many of the leaders of molecular genetics.

Max Delbrück in the early 1940s at Vanderbilt University. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Delbruck.

The Rise of DNA: 1953-1968

During the 1953 Symposium on Viruses, a young member of the Phage Group, James Watson, gave the first public presentation of recent work published with his collaborator, Francis Crick. Together they had determined the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms within the DNA molecule. Although their findings had been published in the April edition of Nature, the Symposium was the first time that many scientists had been exposed to this revolutionary discovery.

In 1962, the CIW gave its physical resources to the Bio Lab; the two units merged into the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology. John Cairns was director of the new Laboratory from 1963-1968. During this time, it was predominantly the revenue from the publications of the ever-growing Symposia that kept the Lab afloat.

The 1966 Symposium on the Genetic Code heralded the discovery of how the nucleotide alphabet - A,T,C,G - specifies the production of proteins. Marshall Warren Nirenberg, of the National Heart and Lung Institute, and Har Gobind Khorana, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported that each three-nucleotide combination constitutes a genetic "word" coding for the production of one of 20 amino acids that are joined together to make protein molecules.The 1966 Symposium was the first important meeting to be held since the genetic code became known; its corresponding volume was, in essence, one of the first molecular biology texts.

Watson, Nixon, and the Growth of the Press: 1968-1988

James D. Watson became the Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1968. Watson took on the job in part to pursue his conviction that the study of DNA tumor viruses would provide the key to understanding cancer. One of his first and most important appointments was Joseph Sambrook, who had been pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship with Renato Dulbecco at the California Institute of Technology. Sambrook brought his virology skills and, with Watson, set about creating what rapidly became a powerhouse of molecular biology and genetics.

On December 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, authorizing the most massively-funded civilian war in history. Over the ensuing 10 years, $7.5 billion in support, funneled through the National Cancer Institute, stimulated an unprecedented expansion in basic biological research. The increased funding fell on a biological research community enormously excited by its new understanding of the role of DNA. CSHL received its first five-year Cancer Research Center grant (renewed in 1977, 1982, and 1987) from the National Cancer Institute in 1972. During the next ten years, this grant provided an umbrella of support under which Sambrook gathered many of the best young tumor virologists.

Dr. Watson signing autographs after a speech at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on April 30, 2007.

One of Watson’s primary goals for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was to disseminate the newly accrued knowledge gained from the Lab’s research. Thus, Watson became deeply involved in the Lab’s Publishing Department. When he became the Director in 1968, the Lab had only released the Symposium volumes and the book Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology (published in 1966 as a celebration of Max Delbrück’s 60th birthday). Watson soon began a crusade to broaden the Publishing Department’s scope; he wished to produce important works that would not only inspire interest in the scientific community, but provide much needed information in the field of molecular biology. Watson decided that the Lab would publish works containing the newest, most stimulating research available: monographs on topics that would also make good meetings, manuals on techniques taught in the Laboratory’s courses, and books that would truly excite students.

In the 1970s, the books published from the Laboratory were small in number but hugely influential. Watson hired Nancy Ford as editor-in-chief in 1972. Ford, who had previous publishing experience, brought her expertise to the burgeoning press and contributed greatly to its most successful publications. The 1973 monumental publication, The Molecular Biology of Tumor Viruses (edited by John Tooze of the European Molecular Biology Organization), the 1974 Symposium on Tumor Viruses, and the continuing summer courses made Cold Spring Harbor a mecca for tumor virus researchers, as it had been for phage researchers before. Watson’s 1976 Annual Report acknowledged that the “highest quality advanced books in biology” were being produced by the Lab.

A new course introduced in 1980, Molecular Cloning of Eukaryotic Genes, quickly became the most popular course in Cold Spring Harbor history, consistently drawing more than 150 applicants. A derived laboratory manual by Tom Maniatis of Harvard University, Joseph Sambrook of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Edward Fritsch of Michigan State University, Molecular Cloning quickly became the standard reference book of recombinant-DNA techniques, selling more than 60,000 copies.

In the 1980s, Watson recognized that the Publishing Department would have to expand once again in order to adapt to the quickening pace of molecular biology research. He decided to publish the ever-popular Symposium volumes in a paperback edition that would be far more accessible to the greater public. Stephen Prentis came to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1986 and introduced the idea of publishing a new journal. Although Prentis tragically died before the launch of Genes and Development in 1987, the journal flourished, paving the way for future publications.

In 1987, Watson decided to turn his attention to the upcoming human genome project and appointed John Inglis as the Publishing Department’s Executive Director. In 1988, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press was officially born as an operating division of the Laboratory. Inglis, who remains the Executive Director today, further expanded the Press in order to reach a broader audience of middle school, high school, and college students.

References

1. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. http://www.cshlpress.com.
2. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. http://www.cshprotocols.org.
3. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Genes & Development. http://www.genesdev.org.
4. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Genome Research. http://www.genome.org.
5. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Learning & Memory. http://www.learnmem.org.
6. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Protein Science. http://www.proteinscience.org.
7. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. RNA. http://www.rnajournal.org.
8. Craig, Paul. The Genetics Society. http://www.genetics.org.uk.
9. Henderson, Margaret. “The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives: Something for Everyone.” Mendel Newsletter n.s. 8 (Feb 1999). The American Philosophical Society. http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mendel/1999.htm#Henderson.
10. Inglis, John R., Joseph Sambrook, and Jan A. Witkowski, ed. Inspiring Science: Jim Watson and the Age of DNA. 452-454. Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2003.
11. McElheny, Victor K., and Seymour Abrahamson, ed. Banbury Report: Assessing Chemical Mutagens: The Risk to Humans. Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1978.
12. Micklos, David, Daniel Schechter, Ellen Skaggs, and Susan Zehl. The First Hundred Years: A History of Man and Science at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. http://www.cshl.edu/History/100years.html.
13. The Protein Society. ProteinSociety.org. http://www.proteinsociety.org.
14. The RNA Society. The RNA Society. http://www.rnasociety.org.
15. Watson, Elizabeth L. Houses for Science: A Pictorial History of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 280-283. Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1991.
16. Witkowski, Jan. “Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.” Wiley InterScience. http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com.