Inside a Nobel Prize-Winning Lab: Professor Lefkowitz Opens the Doors at Duke University

What does it actually look like inside one of the world's most consequential scientific laboratories? Nobel Prize winner Professor Robert Lefkowitz opens the doors to his lab at Duke University and shows us exactly where the science happens.

In this short tour, Professor Lefkowitz walks through the equipment, the experiments, and the team of scientists and students driving his research forward every day. He also walks past the wall of Nobel Prize winners who gave the Lefkowitz Lecture before going on to win their own, including Jennifer Doudna, who invented CRISPR, and Jim Allison, who created immunotherapy for cancer.

The lab still holds biological samples from experiments conducted 50 years ago, perfectly preserved and still usable today.

◼ A firsthand look at the equipment and techniques used in a Nobel Prize-winning lab
◼ The scientists and students working alongside Professor Lefkowitz right now
◼ The wall of Nobel laureates who passed through this lab before winning their own prize
◼ Why cells frozen 50 years ago can still be used in experiments today
◼ What Professor Lefkowitz believes makes science unique: the things you discover are true forever

0:00 Intro
0:39 Inside the Lab: Where the Experiments Actually Happen
1:09 The Equipment That Makes the Science Possible
2:04 Meet the Team: The Students and Scientists Behind the Research
2:37 The Wall of Nobel Prize Winners Who Passed Through This Lab
3:07 The Freezers That Hold 50 Years of Scientific History
4:00 Why What Is True in Science Today Will Be True in 100 Years

You can follow Professor Lefkowitz here:
◼ Duke University Profile:
https://www.biochem.duke.edu/people/lefkowitz-lab

◼ Book: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Funny-Thing-Happened-Stockholm-Adrenaline-Fueled/dp/1643136380

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In this laboratory, cutting-edge scientific research moves from theory into practice. Today, Professor Robert Lefkowitz takes us behind the scenes, introducing the equipment, the techniques, and the research taking place here every day. From specialized instruments to the practical realities of experimental science, we'll get a first-hand look at how new discoveries are explored in a working research environment.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

This is just a lab. This is where all the experiments get done. I love the labs that I see in other places. It's all one long lab, like this whole corridor going all the way down. Instead of being individual rooms, it's all open space.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

And what are these, for example?

SPEAKER_03 0:55

These are samples that are being agitated that need to be shaken for a prolonged period of time. And these are various types of equipment to heat things up to a different temperature. You wouldn't believe how expensive some of the equipment is. Some of our machines cost several hundred thousand dollars. These are hoods, basically have a flow of air sucking in them so that fumes, if you're working with things that, you know, give off fumes, they're immediately sucked away, so they can't really uh you know do any damage to a person.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

As we make our way through the laboratory, we meet the scientists and students working alongside him. Together, they form the team driving the research forward. A couple of students. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:44

I'm doing overlap PCR for microfibronsynthesis.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Supporting the next generation of scientists has always been central to Dr. Robert's work. Over the years, many of those he has mentored have gone on to make remarkable contributions to science, including several Nobel Prize winners.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

After I won the Nobel Prize, they established the Lefkowitz Lecture in my honor. And these posters represent each of the lecturers who have given the Lefkowitz lecture. He uh he discovered uh leptins. Several of these lectures, uh after they gave the Lefkowitz lecture, won the Nobel Prize. So this guy, Jim Allison, invented immunotherapy for cancer. And two years after he gave the lecture, he won the Nobel Prize. Uh Kobilka won the Nobel Prize with me. He was my fellow. And undoubtedly you know the name Jennifer Downer, who invented uh CRISPR, uh, the whole gene editing.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I have a friend who working with her young early stage, and now she's a funk.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

She she also gave the Leftwood lecture two years before she won the Nobel Prize. It's a very distinguished group, very distinguished group. And this is the end of my space. These are all freezers. So it was a lot of experiments have to be done in the cold. Uh so to do that, they actually have to come in here. And many years ago, when we were isolating the receptors, sometimes we had to work for many, many hours in the cold. Uh and uh to do that we used to have parkers, very heavy coats that would be on a rack here, because if you were gonna go in there, we still have cells from 50 years ago, I can tell you that. It's amazing once you put these things in the deep freeze, they last forever. For certain enzyme assays, we can take materials that we studied 50 years ago and repeat the experiments. I mean, you know, that's the lovely thing about science. What was true 50 years ago is true today and will be true in 50 or 100 years. That's part of the excitement of doing science, is that you discover things that are true forever and ever.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

From the equipment and experiments to the people who make the research possible, this tour has given us a glimpse inside a laboratory at work and the discoveries taking place here every day.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Thank you for watching this new episode of Humanware Project. So that we can bring out more amazing content like this one to you. Please like and subscribe. Your support means the world to us.