Recorded: 17 Jan 2003
Alright, so one of the features of James Lab was the rather odd mix of personalities that were there and Joe I think was really a linchpin in all of this because he himself was a slightly odd personality and he seemed to catalyze the interactions of all the other people in the lab.
But it was a fantastic mix of personalities at the time. And I think just the competitions spirit both within the lab and with other labs on the campus was amazing. And then you know little snapshots of some of the other people.
Merilyn Sleigh is a pharmacologist, molecular biologist and dean in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of New South Wales. After completing her Ph.D. at the University of Sydney in pharmacology and another PhD in molecular biology at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), she came to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to work under Joe Sambrook as a postdoctoral fellow researching the protein production of SV40. She returned to CSIRO, establishing one of the first laboratories in Australia using genetic engineering approaches to study influenza virus structure, evolution and gene regulation. She has become involved in developing the biotechnological industry in Australia. Sleigh is founding director of the Australian Biotechnology Association and is currently Chief Executive of EvoGenix, a start-up biotechnology company located in Australia.