Building on basics part 1

Signaling cells Kung seeks cancer trigger

Hsing-Jien Kung sits in an empty office behind an uncluttered desk. The bookshelves are barren, the walls blank. Next door are rows and rows of empty lab benches, vacant shelves and unused ventilation hoods. Only the vivid blue of an architect's plan casually spread over a countertop animates this void.

Nothing here yet attests to the prestige of its new occupant, a world-renowned researcher who works at the most basic level of science to elucidate how certain genes trigger particular cells to grow out of control and become what we know as cancer.

The labs, hallways, storage spaces and office carrels await the arrival of his research team and the extraordinary equipment that today's cutting-edge researchers use in their perennial quest for the elusive.

Only Kung's flashing eyes and infectious smile suggest the excitement that will fill these spaces with the work he envisions doing here.